Kurt and the Brotherhood of Dysfunctional Mutants
by Sparrow Nightrunner
Summary: What would have happened if Kurt hadn't had the happy, loving childhood he did in the series? What if something had happened to the Wagners, leaving a young Kurt to fend for himself? Enter the Brotherhood. Kurt/Todd
1. Escape Act, part 1

**Kurt and the Brotherhood of Dysfunctional Mutants**

_AN: This is an AU fic based around my favorite character from the series: Nightcrawler… and how much I can possibly mess with his head. So, enjoy._

_Warnings: This story seems to be rather Brotherhood-based and has some dark themes, so there will be harsh language. It's just part of some of the characters, though I'll try to keep it to the characters who would actually use such words. Also, this shows hints of being slash… hasn't solidified yet, but it's looking likely._

_What would have happened if Kurt hadn't had the happy, loving childhood he did in the series? What if something had happened to the Wagners, leaving a young Kurt to fend for himself? What sort of people would have picked him up? Where would he be when Xavier came along with his ragtag band of mutants? This is my attempt to answer those questions._

_This is set in an AU in which Kurt's path was completely different… the main difference being that Kurt lost his foster family when he was young, which meant that Cerebro never had a chance to detect Kurt's power, which meant that Professor Xavier never invited him to the X-men. Certain minor things with the rest of the X-men were different because of that (example: Rogue has no idea who the blue baby in her dreams is and "Middleverse" obviously never happened), but the general storyline from the first season was effectively the same. This begins near the end of the early second season episode "Bada-Bing, Bada-Boom"… in the AU universe, of course._

**Episode 1: Escape Act**

The most important thing was the performance.

Its crate was dragged out into someplace loud and bright, light streaming through the cracks in the wood. The announcer built up suspense, elaborating about a demonic beast captured in a small, nameless European town. Something thwacked against the walls of its crate, and it dutifully began the performance.

Scratch against the sides. Jump around a bit. Don't forget to growl.

Build up for the moment. Do it right, and you get to eat. Do it wrong, and Master will be angry with you.

"…stand back, folks, as we present to you the INCREDIBLE BLUE DEMON!"

It gave the walls a powerful shove, and the breakaway crate burst open dramatically, revealing the creature in all its horrific glory. Ratty blue fur, hackles standing on end like some sort of rabid dog… bared, snarling fangs under menacing yellow eyes… odd, cat-like hind legs and appendages with too few fingers and toes over a soiled loincloth…and to top it all off, an aggressively thrashing spaded tail. As if they were part of the performance, the crowd gave a collective gasp.

The demon spent a fraction of a second blinking into the overhead lights and camera flashes. It was a smaller tent this time… some sort of local fair. And there were a lot of teenagers.

The monster hated scaring teenagers.

A whip cracked warningly near its flank, and it resumed the performance. It whirled theatrically on Master with a growl and a flash of its fangs. This evoked a chorus of muffled screams from the crowd. Master was pleased by that: when he flicked the whip again, it cracked the air just above the beast. As long as it kept up a satisfactory performance, the lash wouldn't hit it directly.

"Back, you hellspawn!" Master yelled, playing the part of the brave demon tamer. He was dressed in a rugged costume that showed off his large, burly physique and dark, scruffy features. He grabbed up a cane and waved it around, as if that was enough to stop the creature if it really wanted to hurt him.

It wasn't. The demon had tried, a long time ago. What kept it from hurting Master now had nothing to do with any physical barrier.

The whip snapped against its flank, reminding it to move, and the creature leapt onto one of the raised platforms set around the small ring. The whip cracked again, and the demon leapt up to the next platform. The performance continued like that until it had reached a platform well above Master's head.

There, it gathered all the terror and pain it had been pooling since its last performance, and let it out in a long, throat-tearing howl.

If the audience cared to actually listen to it, they would have recognized it as the howl of a trapped, wounded animal. But no one ever cared. Instead, the crowd heard it as the hunting bay of a beast, and reacted with only fear.

"No one make any sudden moves, or he just may attack. Down, demon! Down!"

The whip flicked its pointed ear, and the creature let out an unintentional yelp.

Scheisse. Yelps were sympathetic. It would pay for that later.

Nonetheless, it continued with the performance, growling menacingly. It leapt up once more and swung by the tent's interior support ropes. It took a moment to revel in the sensation of flying the top of the performance always gave it: the only time it ever got to stretch and move like it yearned to.

It brought back hazy memories… of just standing in the sun, a benevolent presence nearby. And something more recent… being taught the trapeze on the edge of the Before-Life. The demon wanted to try some of those tricks again, because it found them pleasant… but Master would have none of that. The demon was a monster, not an acrobat.

After far too short a time, Master had pulled out the air gun, and was using it to "steer" the monster back down to the ground. It growled and made menacing motions in the right places, and it was only a matter of going through the routine until it was "tamed" and stuffed in a cage too small for it to sit up in, much less stand. Master flourished and bowed before the clapping crowd while the creature was wheeled away.

The beast could only hope it had been good enough to get food today.

o-o-o-o-o-o

Todd Tolansky cackled to himself, hopping out of the noisy tent, his arms loaded with wallets. "I love bleacher seats," he chuckled. "Total paydirt, yo!"

He glanced around at the stark evening lights of the Bayville High School fundraising fair, then hopped over to a tiny, darkened tent nearby. He peeked in, and found it empty and pitch-black. A second later, he had ducked inside, a single liberated wallet falling from his stack and landing in the dirt just outside. A moment later, a long, green tongue shot out of the tent and retrieved it with a slurp.

Todd settled happily just inside the tent, sitting down with his back against a crate. He started picking through the wallets one-by-one, emptying any contents of interest and tossing the rest over his shoulder. Cash, credit cards, credit _and_ cash (score!)... ew, a used condom? Weirdo.

He tossed that wallet over his shoulder a bit harder than the others, and was just reaching for the next when something went "Ow" right behind him.

Todd jumped about four feet, then whirled and tried to peer into the darkness around him. "I didn't do nothin', yo!"

"Scheisse!" the voice said. It sounded scratchy and cracked, like an old tape-player that had just been pulled out of storage, or like the walls back at the Brotherhood boarding house, for that matter. "Don't tell anyvun you heard me speak… please." The accent was weird. Some European accent Todd wasn't sure of, except twisted and truncated by disuse. It was kinda scary to hear.

Todd squinted into the darkness, thinking he could maybe see the source of the voice. The multi-colored lights coming through the door flap reflected off vertical metal bars in front of him… a cage, set on a crate so it was two feet off the ground. Its top was at about Todd's forehead. And there, inside it, he thought he saw a shadow shift near the back. "Or what…? What's gonna stop me, huh?"

"NO!" A shift, and twin glowing yellow spots suddenly appeared in the darkness. Eyes, Todd realized, jerking back with a gasp. He pinwheeled his arms for a moment, then fell on his butt in the dirt and hay.

"Y-yer that… demony thing! You can _talk_?"

"No! I can't!" The eyes moved suddenly, leaping up to the front of the cage. The demon thing was flush against the bars. Todd could make out a light sheen against its fur. It looked a lot less scary up close… Todd had seen it in passing while he'd been lurking beneath the bleacher seats, but he'd been too preoccupied with peoples' pockets to pay much attention to the show. The rest of the Brotherhood and a number of the X-geeks had been at the side show, legitimately watching. Except Freddy, who got kinda weird about side shows… but that was neither here nor there.

"Yo, I'm pretty sure yer talkin' right now, yo. An' I ain't crazy. Yer talkin!"

The creature made a panicked noise. "Please don't tell… please. Zhey'll beat me and starve me. Please." The scratchy voice wobbled and broke at the end.

"'Ey, you cryin'?" Todd picked himself up, staring as the glowing eyes moved away meekly. They looked like they might burst into tears at any moment. Todd was suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. Crap. He had very little experience with crying things. Girls. Babies. Small animals. None of them stuck near him very long, so he had no idea what to do about this. "I won't tell anyone, yo, if it's like that. Kay? So don't cry or nuthin'."

"Svear?"

"We'll spit on it, yo."

A shift. The eyes turned back to him, this time in confusion. "Vas?"

"What?"

The two stared at each other in baffled silence. Todd and the demon hunkered in the cage were at about the same height, faces less than three feet apart. Todd wasn't sure what to make of it; just what was this thing? Was it a mutant? It wouldn't be the first mutant Todd had seen that was blue or that had fur… it'd just be the first time he saw those two things together.

The tail was kinda weird though. Now that Todd's eyes had adjusted, he could see it twitching behind the creature.

And then, the silence was broken by an unexpected voice from just outside the tent. "Hey, Frog-boy! You around here? Tremor-boy said you might be lurking around here somewhere." The demon shrank back into the back of the cage, its form disappearing back into the shadows except for the soft glow of its eyes.

Todd turned, startled, as one of the new X-geeks poked her head into the tent, spangles on her arms clinking lightly against one another as she pulled the tent flap aside. She glanced down at the conspicuous pile of wallets Todd had left on the ground, a sideways grin spreading across her face. "Knew I had you pegged for a pickpocket. Whatcha doin' hiding in here?"

"None of yer beeswax, X-geek."

"Never mind. I think I can figure it out." She bobbed her head, grinning as she stepped inside and looked around the tent. "Word on the street is you're good at… whoa, is that the demon?"

Todd dug a tennis shoe in the dirt as the X-geek stepped toward the cage, her expressive face displaying curiosity. The demon was pressed back against the far wall, almost invisible except for the yellow eyes that watched her fearfully.

"It's not so scary. You know, I heard it was a monkey they dyed blue and stuffed in a loincloth."

Todd snorted, staring at his oversized feet. Yeah sure… if monkeys could _talk._

"Wonder how the little blue 'devil' would react to a little surprise…" she said mischievously. Todd looked up as she clapped her hands together, and something bright and buzzing appeared in her palm when she opened them. Both Todd and the demon shrank back, worried.

"Wha-what the hell is _that_?" Todd sputtered.

The X-geek smirked at him, tossing the little glowing ball up and down. "Nothing but a little firecracker, Frog-boy. It won't hurt it or anything. Not that I wouldn't be above putting this mangy thing out of its misery."

The demon looked at Todd with a panicked expression, which Todd returned with a confused one. What was he supposed to do? He was so ready to say "fuck this" and leave.

So why didn't he?

"Maybe ya shouldn't do that, yo."

"Just try and stop me." She leaned toward the cage, reaching to put the firecracker-ball-thing inside it. Todd lashed his tongue out, wrapping it around her wrist and yanking it back. The ball flew out of her grip and fell to the ground, bouncing and then exploding with a pop right in Todd's wallet pile. Leather and ripped cash flew everywhere.

"Aw, _man._ I was gonna buy food with that, foo'."

"Heh," the X-geek chuckled, flicking her wrist dry of Todd's saliva. She turned toward the exit, demon forgotten. "Come on, slimeball. If you want money, I got something else you might be interested in."

Todd cast one last glance at the demon, who looked at him with pleading eyes. Pleading for _what_? Todd made a helpless gesture. The demon closed its eyes sadly, and Todd lost sight of it in the darkness.

Confused and kind of sad (for some reason), but interested in the X-geek's promise of money, he left. If something howled out its loneliness in the darkness, it was swallowed up by the music of the carrousel.

o-o-o-o-o

"A yelp? What, did it hurt? Do monsters feel _pain_, demon?"

It curled in on itself, flinching as the strip of wood pounded into its back again and again. It bit back a whimper, because that was what had gotten it in trouble in the first place. Monsters don't feel pain. Monsters don't cry.

It could feel blood seeping down its fur from the fresh welts. Master enjoyed keeping its coat a bloody, dirty mess… it heightened the performance. The hay at the bottom of the tent was poking into its eye, but it didn't dare uncurl. Getting thrashed in the back didn't hurt nearly as much as in the front.

Except that monsters didn't feel pain.

It was nearing morning: the sounds of the local fundraising fair had long since stopped. Some distant noises could be heard as the ferris wheel was taken down to be ready for shipping. The fair was off to the next city as soon as they got their share of the profits from the event.

The wooden strip had stopped its assault. The demon swallowed, and was ready when Master picked it up by the scruff of its neck. The demon stayed limp, even as Master brought its face to his own. The creature lowered its eyes submissively.

"Your timing was slow, tonight. You're lucky you were working with a bunch of stupid kids, or else you might not be eating tonight."

The demon's eyes looked up hopefully, all on their own. Its gaze met Master's and it flinched, realizing its mistake a moment too late. A blow struck its cheek, pitching it clear across the tent. It stayed where it landed, only moving to curl around its empty stomach.

"What the hell have I said about meeting my eyes, demon?" Master stalked forward and gave it a kick in the ribs with a heavy boot.

"I'm sorry, Master," it wept. "I didn't mean to."

"And _talking_? Dammit, I thought we were past this little rebellious stage of yours."

The demon was hauled up by its scruff once again. This time, it kept its gaze squarely on its misshapen feet.

"You know better, demon. You feel like talking? Tell me why I've bothered to keep you for so long, you worthless little shit!"

The creature's shoulders shook with suppressed sobs, but it blinked back any threatening tears. Monsters didn't cry.

"You remember what happens when you try to leave, don't you? What people less generous than me do to a freak like you?"

It nodded.

"I protect you and keep you fed and watered, and this is how you repay me? Is this what you call respect, you ugly monster?"

It wanted to say how it was sorry, so sorry, it'd been a bad little demon, not worth the money Master spent to keep it… but doing so would violate Master's "no talking" rule. It hoped its body language conveyed it.

After a long moment of Master's glare boring into the top of its down-turned head, Master seemed satisfied. He flung the creature back into its cage and slammed the door. "I think a night without dinner will remind you to keep your mouth shut!"

With a definitive click of the cage's padlock, Master left.

It was only when it was sure Master was gone that the demon allowed itself to break down in tears…. But silent tears. It couldn't afford to let anyone else know of its pain. To show other people its pain was to break the performance, and that made Master angry.

Gott, it was hungry. It had gotten breakfast that morning, but nothing after that. Its stomach ached and twinged with hunger. It served the demon right, for slipping like that. It knew better.

The demon had lost track of how long it had been with this particular group… maybe a year, or a little more. The original one… the circus that had taught it all those fun tricks, had picked the creature up at age seven, but they had only kept it for a couple months. After that, its life had been a blur of pain and stares as it was shunted from sideshow, to private 'collector' and back to sideshow. Its current Master wasn't the worst of them, not by far. The demon could live up to his expectations, as long as it could keep up the performance.

It was all because of the pale boy earlier that night… the one who had surprised the demon while sleeping and heard it speak. The boy had brought back so many things… human interaction… vague memories of people not shrinking away from it, but instead reaching out tenderly. And that tongue thing he'd done, and the scary balls the girl had made… what was that about? Were they normal… or were they monsters like the demon was?

Gott, how old was it now? It couldn't guess. There were a lot of things from its Before-Life that slipped its memory now. It had had a home, but something had happened. Someone had loved the creature… sometimes, it dreamed of a soft brush running through its fur, a gentle rumbling sound filling its ears. It remembered… God. Praying and faith… and demons. It remembered a lot about demons, because no one ever let it forget that.

It'd had a name, too… but that was something that had been erased a long time again.

A howl bubbled up in its throat, but the creature forced it down. No… no, it couldn't afford to do that again. It needed to save all this pain for the next performance tomorrow night… saving it would make the performance better. Couldn't waste it now.

Something moved outside its tent, and the demon hastily wiped the wetness from its eyes. A moment later, it heard whispers approaching.

"…don't get why we're doin' this, yo." Was that… the pale boy? He was back? Why? "That psycho nearly got me totally busted. I don't need to another tick on my rec, yo,"

"Stop jawin', Todd," rumbled a second voice. "Which tent was he in?"

…'_he'?_

"This one."

A moment later, the tent flap opened and two figures stepped in. Even in the darkness, the demon had no difficulty seeing their features... judging by the way they hesitated and looked around, they didn't have the same benefit. One was the gangly, strong-smelling boy from before… Todd, the other had called him. The girl from earlier had called him "Frog-boy."

The other was a boy about four times bigger than Todd… he filled up most of the small tent.

Todd looked around nervously, as if afraid that someone was going to jump out and take him away. "Why we here, Freddy? I know what I said…. but he's just some freak in a freak show."

"Yeah, well… so was I." 'Freddy' lumbered forward, blocking the demon's view of everything else.

The demon automatically shrank back, wincing at the stinging pain moving sent across its back.

A meaty hand tried to wriggle its way through the bars, but it was too big to get in past the knuckles. "You in there, lil' guy?"

"Yeah, he's there," Todd said from somewhere behind the living mountain. "You can kinda see his eyes. All glowy n' stuff."

The large teen peered in for another moment, then went, "Oh, I see him. You don't gotta be scared. I wanna help."

"Here." A spindly hand snaked around the large boy's bulk. It held a half-full bag of something… something that smelled salty. "These might help, yo."

The bigger boy took the bag and looked at for a moment, then turned and snaked it through the bars with a thick finger. "You want some Cheesy Puffs? It ain't much, but it's all we got."

Scents wafted over. Salt. And something else… cheese? Not real cheese, but it was still better than the slop Master provided. This was human food, which was too good for the creature.

But it wanted the food so bad… it was so hungry, and it'd been so long since it had eaten anything remotely meant to be pleasant tasting. Maybe Master wouldn't be too mad about one little bag…

Carefully, it poked out a forelimb and inched toward the bag.

"C'mon," said the big guy. "They're good."

"Yeh," Todd said with a chuckle. "Ya better get 'em before Freddy changes his mind and eats 'em himself, yo."

The demon paused at the sound of the boy's chuckle. That was… a noise that it wasn't sure how to deal with. That was a happy sound, its memory told it. No one ever made happy sounds around the demon… not since the Before-Life. But the gangly boy had. He'd talked to it, and now he was making happy sounds.

"Aren't you scared of me?" the demon asked hesitantly.

Todd made the chuckling sound again, and popped out from behind the large boy. The demon could see a smirk on his face. "With the Blob, here? Man, you ain't gonna do nothin' to me. Freddy's like a walkin' tank, yo."

Freddy shoved the smaller boy back, but the demon could clearly see the fond smile on the larger boy's face, hidden from his compatriot by the darkness. "Knock it off, _Toad_. Who says I'd protect you, huh?"

"Bah, ya would," Todd returned in a sing-song voice. "Cuz I'm your 'Little Buddy'!"

"You been ramming your head into too many doors, Todd."

The demon listened to the banter, transfixed. It had never seen anything like it. The easy conversation between them made the creature yearn for something like that… what would it be like to have that sort of companionship? Or any sort of companionship?

Then, the demon realized something else: Freddy was looking over his shoulder… he was distracted. No one was paying attention to the bag. The demon surreptitiously crept forward, snatched the bag of snacks, and returned to the back of the cage. It had already brought the first handful to its mouth before it had sat down.

"Just the one door. Not my fault the boss-lady lined it with lead or somethin'."

"I think the lead's in your head."

By GOD the food was so good. Salty and cheesy and crunchy and spicy and the demon had never tasted anything so good. Things blurred as it got lost in the sensation, moving its hand continuously from bag-to-mouth.

"Heh. Think he likes it, yo."

"Poor guy. He's so skinny. Think they really starve 'im?"

"Man, _I'm_ starvin'. Why'd ya have ta give the freak our last bag a' snacks, huh?"

"Cuz you said he was starved and stuff. Stop whinin'."

The demon looked up. It had worked its way almost completely through the bag, but a stab of guilt went through it. They were hungry too? Well, maybe not Fred… but Todd did look pretty skinny. Tentatively, the demon held out the bag to the smaller boy.

The boy blinked his deep-set eyes. "What, you serious, foo'?"

The demon lowered its head, worried about the boy's odd expression, but kept its arm extended. Then Freddy rumbled a laugh. At the noise, the demon dropped the bag and shrank back into its cage.

"You're both so weird," the big teen said through his laughs.

Suddenly, the cage jerked (the demon bit back a yelp), and a loud creaking could be heard. The demon looked up, and was shocked to see Fred bending the bars of his cage open. With his _hands_.

"C'mon," Freddy said when he was done, stepping back to allow the demon room to exit. "We're bustin' you out."

The demon didn't move for it. In fact, it pressed itself farther into the back, afraid of the wide open space between itself and the world. "V…vas? No, no, I can't leave. I'm not allowed to leave."

"Yeh, that's the point a' bustin' ya out," Todd drawled.

"No, I'm sorry. I can't. I… I need to stay here."

"They're keepin' ya in a cage, foo'! Why the hell would ya wanna stay?"

The skinny boy seemed to be getting upset by the demon's words. Maybe this was why it wasn't supposed to talk. It turned its face away submissively, but risked mumbling, "I'm safe here."

That made the pale boy blink in blatant confusion. "They beat you. That don't sound safe to me, foo'."

"It's better zhan being outside. People vould try to kill me."

"I ain't tryin' to kill ya, and Freddy ain't either. C'mon, we got a place where you'd fit in real good."

Was it possible…. It could leave its cage?

No. No, Master would catch it and beat it.

"No. I can't. I'm sorry. Don't be mad."

Freddy shifted and announced, "I'm bored o' this. C'mon, before we get caught. We can do all this freakin' out stuff later."

The demon _did _yelp when Freddy reached a meaty hand into its cage and easily picked the furry creature up by the ribcage. Next thing it knew, it was out of the cage (_in-the-open-in-the-open-oh-God-I'm-in-trouble_) and tossed over Freddy's shoulder. A moment later, Todd was tossed over the other one, and Freddy rumbled off with his two passengers as if it was nothing.

Todd smirked over at the demon. "Just sit back and enjoy the ride, yo. It's what I always do."

The demon was having difficulty doing that as they moved out through the empty fairgrounds. Everything was so _open_. Its breath came harsh in its throat, and it struggled against the large boy's steady grip. But then, it looked up and saw the stars… and that surprised it into complacence. The demon could remember looking up at them, a long time ago…. while someone who loved it held it close and whispered the names of the stars and the planets in its ears, and it had marveled at how big the universe was. And here they still were… half a world away and eight years later, shimmering steadily all along.

Fresh air swept across its face, carrying strange scents to the creature's sensitive nose. If it extended its natural spatial senses, it could feel the locations of the nearby tents and structures on the half-disassembled fairgrounds. And beyond those chain fences were things that the demon didn't have names for. It could see the structures in the distance, strange and scary and fascinating.

It could go look at them, it realized. If it left its cage and left Master, it could do anything it wanted!

But what about the people? They would hurt it.

A large, strong arm keeping it safe and secure… was that an illusion? A sly, green smile in the dark, promising things the demon didn't understand.

Free…

It was free.

_He_ was free.

The odd peace was only a little ruined by Todd's tongue snapping out and grabbing a half-eaten corn dog out of the trash.


	2. Escape Act, part 2

"Here we are," Todd announced as they reached the familiar run-down form of the Brotherhood boarding house. "Home sweet hovel."

The demon didn't give any indication that he'd heard Todd, but that wasn't anything new. Todd had been trying to get the guy to do something interesting the entire way home, but the blue fuzzball just kept looking around himself with wide yellow eyes. It was like he'd never seen a grungy city street before.

An irritable and haggard Lance Alvers greeted them as Fred carried them through the door. He stood in the doorway to the kitchen, his arms crossed.

"Where the hell have you two been?" he snapped, then stared at the demon. "And what the hell is _that_?"

"It's-that-demon-thing." Pietro provided, appearing with a _fwip_ in the doorway opposite Lance. "From-the-freak-show."

The demon's eyes were wide and fearful as he regarded the two strangers, and Todd kinda felt sorry for him. As Freddy set both his bundles down, the fuzzball slunk across the carpet to hide behind Todd's legs.

Oh boy.

Lance slapped his forehead and drew his hand slowly down his face. "You've gotta be kidding me. First that Boom Boom chick, now this thing? We can't make ends meet as it is!"

"Wait," Todd looked between his housemates in confusion, trying to ignore the odd sensation of a prehensile tail curling tightly around his left ankle. "Whad'ya mean 'first that Boom Boom chick'?"

"We-had-a-new-arrival-while-you-guys-were-out." Pietro quirked his head and glanced irritably up the stairs. "Welcomed-herself-in-and-everything."

A familiar female voice called from upstairs: "My ears are burning, Speedy! Now hush up so a girl can get some beauty sleep, huh?"

No. Way. Todd groaned… he'd thought he'd been done with her when he'd ditched her and her psycho father in the warehouse. Guess not.

"On the bright side, she found a way into Mystique's room," Lance said, not sounding very bright at all.

"But-she's-not-letting-us-sell-anything-in-there."

"That's because we haven't asked her," snapped Lance.

"Hey, I'm-not-asking-her… she's-_nuts._ _You-_ask-her."

"No way! She shouldn't be here at all!"

"Sounds-like-a-job-for-our-mighty-leader."

"That's right, I _am_ the leader. And I degrigate the task to you."

"It's-_delegate_, smart-stuff."

"Yeah, well… shut up Pietro."

Pietro made a huffing sound and disappeared into the room behind him with a _fwip_.

Lance turned his focus back to the other people, his glare falling squarely on Todd. Todd gulped. He could feel the furball pressing his face into his leg.

"So what the hell, Toad? Since when do you bring home strays?"

"It was Freddy's idea, yo."

Todd sighed in relief as Lance's glare shifted to Fred. The larger boy didn't even seem to notice the glare.

"Side shows can be rough, man," he said simply.

"We can't keep him."

"Aw," Todd groaned. "C'mon, Lance… have a heart!"

The glare turned back to him, and Todd cowered. "This ain't about heart, Tolansky. The city _just_ shut off our water, like, an hour ago. There's no damn way we can afford one more person living here."

"Wha…? You're letting that Tabby chick stay!"

_Fwip. _"Yeah-but-she's-scary." _Fwip._

"Well, uh…" Todd scratched his head. "Maybe the furball can help with the money. He does this real cool shadow blending thing, yo."

"Forget it, Tolansky."

"I like him," Freddy put in slowly.

_Fwip._ "He-_was_-pretty-bouncy-at-the-fair."

Lance's hand went back to his face. "He's such a _freak_."

Ka-BOOM! "I said to quiet down down there! How's a girl supposed to crash without blowing stuff up around here? Sheesh!"

Todd chuckled as Lance stared up the stairs with mild horror. "Should fit in just fine, then, huh?"

o-o-o-o-o-o

One leg twitched as he pulled out of sleep. Something soft was under him… and on top of him. Someone was moving around in another room nearby, knocking and thumping things.

Light filtered dimly through his eyelids. Light…? Oh no, morning.

Late; he was late. Master would be in any minute… he couldn't be caught still sleeping.

…he?

His eyes snapped open, and he bolted off the couch he'd been on, upsetting the ratty sheet that had been tossed over him. Disoriented, he didn't recognize his surroundings… oh God had he been sold again?

He paced around the run-down sitting room on all fours, his breath coming harsh in his throat. Not again, hated when they sold him to private residences… needed to get out, before they put him on a leash and started doing… things. But where could he go?

He was running now, bouncing off floors and walls as he streaked through the house. A hallway, a closet, lots of closed doors. A high-pitched, animal sound escaped his throat. Find an open door or window… outside, get outside… but where to go? Nowhere safe… he was in trouble, so sorry ohGodheshouldneverhaveyelped.

_He_?

He streaked through a grimy kitchen and didn't see the occupant until he had nearly slammed into him.

"What-the-!" _Fwip_. The boy dodged aside impossibly fast.

Get away from him. Keep running.

He jumped off a counter and propelled himself into a hallway. Someone on the staircase-!

_BAM._

This person didn't dodge nearly as fast, and they both toppled the three steps to the bottom of the stairs. The demon rolled upright and streaked up the stairs as his victim shouted "TOLANSKY!" behind him. The house seemed to shake around him, and he ran faster.

A door opened, and a pale face poked out sleepily. "Whassa matter now?"

A pale, familiar face! A flash of memories: food, freedom!

"Oof!"

The demon tackled Todd back into his dim bedroom and wrapped all five appendages around the boy's legs. The boy's hair was a mess, and he was dressed in nothing but a worn pair of PJ pants. His thick, swampy smell was a great deal more pungent in the enclosed area… and the room smelled to match… but the demon was in no state to be picky.

The one he had run into stomped into the doorway a moment later. "What the hell, Tolansky? I don't need to wake up to some freaked out freak!"

"S'not my fault, foo'!" Todd tried to stand, but couldn't with a demon wrapped around his legs. He made an attempt to pry his assailant off, but the demon was shaking too much to comply.

Memories of the night before were rushing through him at full speed. Todd. The scary blond girl and her exploding light. Freddy's thick, safe grip. People calling him a "he" instead of an "it." And this house.

He hadn't been bought. He was free… that's what Todd said. But what did that mean? He didn't know what to do… everything was so scary now.

"Yo, get off before ya break my legs or somethin'!"

He jerked his head up and saw Todd's annoyed expression. Immediately, he released the pale boy and scurried away. He cowered against the nearest wall, hoping that the boy wasn't mad enough to injure him too badly.

"Jesus. This is just pathetic," said the one called Lance from the doorway.

"Is he scared a' _me_? That's fucked up, yo."

"Well, calm him down or something! And while you're at it, make sure he's housebroken!" Both Todd and the demon flinched as Lance slammed the door hard enough to shake peels of paint off the walls.

After a moment of sitting in the dim light of the stark, messy room, Todd crawled toward him hesitantly. He raised a hand, and the demon flinched, preparing for impact. The hand dropped back to Todd's side.

"Hey, I ain't gonna hit you or nothin'. So stop doin' that. It's kinda freakin' me out."

"I'm sorry," he mumbled quietly. "I didn't mean to."

"Yeah, well, yer still doin' it. Just relax."

Shakily, the demon forced himself to stop cowering. He could by no means relax, but he could pretend he was. Carefully, he put himself in a sitting position, and hid the shaking of his hands by grabbing his knees. He kept his head down, though, only peeking up through his hair to see if that was okay.

"Damn, yer pretty messed up, ain'tchya?"

He wasn't sure how to respond to that. His confusion must have shown on his face.

Todd sighed and sat up into an easy crouch… much lower than most people could go, except the demon himself. Todd even bounced a bit in it as he glanced around the room, as if looking for something to solve the current awkwardness. Once the eyes were off him, the demon found himself finally relaxing for real.

"So what'd ya do to get Lance so pissed at ya, foo'?"

The demon debated over whether to answer. But Todd seemed to like it when he spoke, most of the time, so maybe it was okay. "I… I knocked him down zhe stairs. …I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it."

He tensed when Todd snorted, and jumped when the pale boy threw back his head and laughed. "Ahahaha! You serious, foo'?"

"You…you're not mad at me?"

"Why would I care? Yeah, Lance might be a little pissed off, but he'll get over it. That's just Lance, yo. Only grudge he holds is with Summers."

"Vhat's a Summers?"

"Ah, boy… you got a lot ta learn." The pale boy hopped up onto his bed, rumpling his sheets even more than they already were. He bounced on the graying mattress a couple times, then flopped back, splaying out across the bed. The demon watched curiously, his fear fading.

"So ya got a name, foo'?"

"A… name?"

"Yeah. Like… what do people call ya?"

"Um… demon. Or monster."

Todd's head turned toward him and his buggy eyes bugged out more. "You serious? No wonder you're so messed up."

"I used to have vun," the demon ventured, feeling braver now that Todd wasn't so near. "But… zhat vas before…"

He expected Todd to look at him in confusion, or ask what he was talking about. Instead, his head rolled back and he put his hands behind his head. "Yeah, I been there."

"…vas?"

Yellow eyes flicked toward him. "Yo, what language is that?"

The demon blinked in surprise. Then, he furrowed his brows, trying to remember. He knew several languages, after all the places he'd performed, but the one he sometimes slipped into was the oldest… it was from the Before-Life. It took a moment to sort through it…

"Deutsche," he said, his hoarse voice tinged with light awe at the rediscovery of something he'd thought lost. He looked up at Todd in wonder. "I'm German."

"So that's that accent. Coo'." Todd closed his eyes, completely ignorant of the flutters of joy passing through his companion.

Other things that he'd thought forgotten were making themselves known… a perfume, a window, a lullaby. Still faded and hazy and hidden under a lot of darker, more recent things, but at least he knew they were there now. It was like hearing a little tinkle of a music box through the cacophony of a carnival crowd… he couldn't make out the melody, but the mere presence was enough lift the spirits.

He was human … his trainers and owners had tried to make him forget that over the years. But he'd had a family, once. It was possible for people to care about him.

He looked up at Todd, feeling somehow reborn. Todd seemed to have fallen asleep, sprawled across his grungy bed with the sheets half off. The pale boy was completely oblivious to just what he had set in motion.

Todd and Freddy had called him "he." Lance and Pietro had called him "he." He was a _person_, not a _thing. _

These guys didn't beat him because he was a person to them… he was an equal (well maybe not quite… but close!). Master… Master had been wrong. Master had not had the right.

He could have fought for that right. And if Master tried to come after him… he _would_ fight. Because he was a free person now. Free. Person.

He couldn't remember ever smiling as widely as he did now. A light, happy energy he'd never felt before coursed through him, making him want to start bouncing off the walls (again).

Without thinking about it, he leapt up and bounced onto Todd's bed, nearly trampling on the boy's legs. Todd awoke with a jerk and a "Wha…"

"Kurt!" he announced, excitedly bouncing in place over the pale boy. "My name is Kurt!"

"Easy, foo'! Havin' a name ain't _that_ excitin'!"

"You don't understand! I have a name! I zhought zhey took it, but zhey didn't!"

"Whoa, hey, don't cry!"

He realized that there were tears leaking out of his eyes. Too late… a pair of tears dripped off the fur at his chin and splattered onto Todd's collarbone. He was grinning too hard to care.

He threw himself on top of the boy's bare chest, hugging him gratefully and crying out his happiness. Because he _wasn't_ a monster. He _could_ cry, if he wanted to. And God, did he want to right now. Todd awkwardly patted his shoulder, but didn't react any more than that.

Finally, the tears stopped, and Kurt (_Kurt!)_ felt like he could let go without doing flips around the room. He sat back on his feet and crouched there, grinning like a maniac. His flicking tail made a further mess of the already rumpled bed.

Todd pushed himself up on one elbow, looking awkward. After a moment scratching a hand in his rat's nest hair, he seemed to find something to say. "So… um. Outta curiosity…an' I ain't volunteerin' or nuthin'…"

"Vhat?" Kurt asked, curious and a little worried.

"_Are _ya housebroken?"

o-o-o-o-o-o

By the time they headed down the stairs, Kurt was feeling a bit more level-headed, but Todd was completely cracking up.

Todd had lent him an old pair of mud-stained jeans and a mud-brown long-sleeved shirt (both heavily bathed in all-natural Perfume de Toad), and they had both been rather baffled about what to do about Kurt's tail. Eventually, Toad had scrounged up a switchblade and poked a hole right through the belt-line of his jeans. When Kurt cried out and said he didn't want Todd to ruin his clothes on his account, Todd had just shrugged and said that "one more hole ain't gonna make no difference, dawg."

Todd's clothes fit surprisingly well. They would have been a little tight, if Kurt weren't so thin. His arms and legs were just a bit long for them.

Todd had looked more than a little mortified to discover that Kurt was not, in fact, housebroken. He'd stood outside the bathroom, explaining things in a voice tight with embarrassment while Kurt fumbled his way through his first real encounter with a toilet.

Then, Todd had made the discovery that Kurt could not physically walk upright without help, and had not stopped chuckling about it since.

Kurt was somewhat baffled over Todd's amusement. It was only natural he couldn't walk upright after all, since he'd spent the last year in a cage too small for him to stand. His muscles just hadn't grown that way. Apparently, there was something funny about him climbing halfway up the wall just to try to get his legs straight, and then them not being able to support his upright weight for more than a few seconds.

But if it made Todd happy, he had no complaint about it. He didn't mind being laughed at in the least… it was the least he could do, after everything that the other boy had done for him in the last twelve hours. It was actually kind of nice… a different kind of attention than he was used to. Better.

So he trailed after Todd, on all fours like some kind of prowling cat and dressed in clothes that were just a bit too short for him. He could hear voices and movement below; the house was fully awake, and probably had been for some time.

Todd bounded down the stairs toward the voices. "Yo, we got anythin' to eat other than flies?"

Kurt crawled down the stairs a little more slowly. His tail twitched nervously as he paused halfway down and crouched there, listening. Todd had already disappeared into the TV room… the place where Kurt had woken up not all that long ago. It sure felt like a long time.

"Most-people-don't-include-'flies'-in-things-to-eat-Toad."

"That's just cuz I'm more nu-tri-tion-al-ly flexible than you guys, yo."

"Translation: you eat trash and bugs. Nothing to brag about, Tolansky. And where'd the freak go?"

"Huh? Uh… he was here a second ago."

Todd's head poked out of the doorway. He blinked up at Kurt in confusion.

"You comin' down, or just sittin' there all day?"

Kurt nervously worked his tongue around his fangs. Todd was okay, he'd decided. And Freddy, too. But he wasn't sure how to feel about everyone else in the world, and there were more than just Todd and Freddy in that room.

Slowly, Kurt lowered himself from his crouch and started down the stairs. He met Todd at the bottom and followed Todd into the TV room. His stomach would have been churning, if it weren't so empty.

He crept around the corner and through the doorway, as if that would make him less noticeable. Much to his relief… no one seemed to care. There were no screams, no stares, no torches and pitchforks (a hazy recurring nightmare he didn't like to dwell upon)… in fact, the three boys in the room simply looked over to register his presence, and then went back to heckling Todd.

"We'd have enough money to buy some groceries," said Lance, "if you hadn't turned and fled as soon as things got hot with Boom Boom's pops." He was sprawled into a second-hand armchair, one leg tossed casually over the arm.

"So-Toad-flees-the-scene-of-the-crime. What-else-is-new?" Pietro rolled his eyes. He was sitting rather stiffly on one end of the couch, one arm resting out along the back.

"Hey, next time _you_ do it, if it's so easy." Todd said, sounding a little petulant. He hopped onto the other end of the couch.

Fred was on the floor in front of Pietro, the TV remote dwarfed by one of his huge hands. The TV was a small, battered machine that showed more fuzz than picture. Fred was absorbed by whatever was on it, but the volume was too low for anyone else to listen properly.

Kurt hesitated in the doorway, but since no one protested his presence, he felt free to follow Todd into the room. He crawled up onto the back of the couch behind Todd and perched there, his head moving back and forth as he watched the others talk.

"Yeah, you're one to talk about running away, Maximoff," Lance snickered.

"At-least-_I_-do-it-with-_style_."

"Aw, I gots style!"

"No, you got _slime_. It's no wonder no girl ever gets near you."

"Nah. Smell-scares-'em-off-long-before-they-notice-the-slime."

"Now that's just hurtful, yo."

"But it's true. You should really consider a bath, Tolansky. I can smell ya from all the way over here."

"I _can't_ bathe, foo'. We ain't got no water, 'member?"

"Yet-the-cable's-fine. Go-figure."

"Man, we've been stealing cable since last term. It'll stay, don't worry."

"Yeah-but-what-happens-when-they-cut-our-power-huh? Ever-think-of-that, oh-fearless-leader?"

"Yeah, I got it covered! Just settle down, and I'll handle everything."

"Like you been 'handlin' things so far? Yeah, good job with that… now we ain't got no food _or _water."

"Shut up, Tolansky, before I decide to shake things up!"

"Ooh-creative. Never-heard-that-one-before."

"Yeh, now we gotta deal with no food, no water, _and _Lance's stupid rock puns."

The house suddenly started shaking around them, plaster falling from the ceiling. Todd, Pietro, and Kurt all grabbed the couch for support. It stopped a moment later, and Lance sent them a smug grin.

"Are-you-_insane_? You-trying-to-bring-the-house-down-around-us-or-what?"

"Yeah, foo'. The only reason I still stick around is cuz there's a roof over my head. As in, over, not on."

Kurt had been confused for a while now. He leaned down and poked Todd. "Zhat shaking vas him? How did he do zhat?"

Both Lance's and Pietro's heads whipped around to stare at him.

"Whoa. He-does-talk."

"That's easy, furball," Lance said lazily, after he'd gotten over his surprise. "I shoot these tremor wave things out of my hands. Makes everything shake… breaks up the ground. So I can crush anyone who pisses me off, like Tolansky here."

Todd's green tongue poked out of his mouth toward Lance.

"Is zhat… normal?" Kurt ventured uncertainly.

Lance gave him an odd look while Pietro burst out into laughter. "Of course it's not normal. It's my mutant power, duh."

"Mutant?"

Pietro threw his head back and shrieked his laughter, one fist pounding the couch impossibly fast. Kurt's eyes widened as he watched the fist.

"You serious? You don't know what a mutant is?"

Kurt shook his head, his wide eyes trained on Pietro's fist. That was unusual… he was sure of it. And Freddy had bent metal with his hands. Were all these guys… monsters?

"You're a mutant, furball." Lance sat forward. "In fact, you're the mutantest mutant I've _ever_ seen."

"We're people born with special powers an' stuff, yo." Todd relaxed back into the couch with a grin. "Just chill an' enjoy it."

"Oh." Kurt tried that term in his head: "mutant." It sounded…strange.

Suddenly, Todd sat up again. "You need a mutant name."

"Huh?"

"Hey, yeah." Lance sat back, wearing a grin that was less than entirely benevolent.

"News-flash." Pietro zipped over and knocked on Lance's head, then zipped out of range when Lance tried to swat him. "We-don't-know-anything-about-him. We-don't-even-know-if-he's-Brotherhood-material."

"Just _look_ at him, yo."

"You gotta admit it, Maximoff. He'd make a good mascot."

Kurt's tail twitched uncertainly. The attention was nice, but he wasn't sure he liked where this was going.

"Okay, basics-first." Pietro settled back on the couch, twisting to peer closely at Kurt. Kurt drew back slightly. "Name."

"Uh… Kurt."

"That-it?"

Kurt lowered his head.

"Ooooh-kay. Next-question: family?"

"Aw, come on, Maximoff!" Lance butted in. "You don't ask a potential Brotherhood member that!"

"Maybe-I'm-just-making-sure-he-doesn't-_have_-any," Pietro snapped. "I-mean-we-don't-want-someone-coming-after-us-for-kidnapping-their-blue-baby-boy."

Lance simmered. Kurt spoke before he started making things shake again. "I don't have a family. But… Mas… my trainer from zhe carnival might not like me disappearing."

"Pfft." Lance sat back again, dismissing Pietro's existence. "We can handle some stupid human. Don't worry." Lance looked at him a little more companionably. As if admitting he was alone in the world somehow drew Lance toward him. "So what powers you got?"

"Powers?"

"Yeah. You gotta have something, looking like _that_."

Kurt furrowed his brow thoughtfully. He had a lot of idiosyncrasies… things he could do that normal people couldn't, that scared other people. Could they be 'powers'?

"I… I have alvays been very agile," he ventured.

"Seen-it," Pietro sang. He pointed to Todd. "Unless-your-power-comes-with-super-stink-and-a-prehensile-tongue, I'm-not-impressed."

"I have a prehensile tail… does zhat count?" He lifted his tail pointedly, curling it in lazy patterns behind him.

"Anything else?" Lance pressed curiously.

"Um…lots of little zhings." He ducked his head, feeling like he was about to list everything that made him a monster. "I can see in zhe dark really vell… und I turn invisible in zhe dark. Vell, except for mein eyes. Zhey glow."

"Yeh, it's downright freaky, yo."

"Und, um…" He straightened on his perch, encouraged by the interested looks that they were giving him. Even Pietro. "I'm really flexible. Und I can climb just about any surface, even flat valls und sometimes ceilings."

Lance nodded thoughtfully, looking pleased. Kurt felt a smile tug at his lips. They didn't mind his oddities…. In fact, they liked them!

"I have zhis funny spatial sense zhing too. Like… I can close mein eyes, and still tell vhere zhings are. It's not much use on its own, but it complements zhe ozher zhings. And my ozher senses are pretty sharp too. I have very good hearing und sense of smell."

"Huh. You-wouldn't-think-so-of-someone-who-follows-Toad-around."

"Hey, I gots animal magnetism."

"Emphasis on _animal_."

"Talk about animal magnetism!" said a new voice very close behind Kurt. Suddenly, something grabbed Kurt's be-jeaned butt.

He yelped and shot straight in the air, sticking to the ceiling by four splayed legs and with his hackles sticking up every which way. He peered down and saw the scary blonde girl leaning against the couch where he had just been, her lips grinning around a Dumdum.

Lance made a face at the girl. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Getting breakfast." She vaulted over the back of the couch, carelessly nearly landing on Todd as the pale boy scrambled away. "You boys do know you don't have any grub, right?"

"Oh yeah. We know."

"So-you-weren't-kidding-about-climbing-stuff-huh?"

Kurt glanced over, and noticed Pietro craning his neck up at him, looking baffled. "Ja." He experimentally made his way across the ceiling, finding an empty light fixture right over Freddy's head. "I can't climb some smooth metals, but for everyzhing else, gravity might as vell not exist."

"Awesome." Lance's attention was back on Kurt. He looked thoughtful. "So you can hide in shadows and climb walls and stuff. You'd probably be wicked at stealth."

"Ja. Probably." He hooked his tail on the empty light fixture and let himself drop so that he was hanging upside-down by it.

"Mm…" Boom Boom grinned around her DumDum, stretching and tossing her legs over Pietro's knees. The blond boy stared at her feet, as if unsure what to do with them. "Love your accent, Blue."

"Uh… zhank you?"

Lance scratched his chin. "So how about somethin' dark? 'Nightcreeper'."

"You trying to come up with a codename for him or something?" Boom Boom asked, popping her DumDum out of her mouth.

"Yeh," Toad drawled, settling on the ground next to Freddy. "Tha's cool… but I dunno if it fits. I don' think Kurt is much of a 'creeper', yo."

"I like 'Blue'," Boom Boom volunteered cheerily.

"Yeah, that'd strike fear into the hearts of the X-geeks," Lance said with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh, is that what you guys are trying to do? Couldn't really tell, with names like 'Quicksilver' and 'Toad'."

"Hey-what's-wrong-with-my-name?"

"Maybe something demonic?" Lance said. "What was it those carnies called you… the Blue Demon?"

"Wait-wait! What's-wrong-with-my-name?"

"I'd razher not," Kurt said hesitantly from his place hanging from the ceiling. "Zhere are a lot of bad memories attached to zhat name."

"Okay, okay. Any more bright ideas?"

Toad volunteered, "I kinda like the 'night' thing. Maybe 'Nightcrawler' or somethin'?"

Pietro quirked his head. "Isn't-that-some-kind-of-worm?"

"Yeah. 'Nightcrawler'." Lance said, grinning. "I like the sound of it."

"Seriously-I-think-it's-the-name-of-a-worm."

"So? It wouldn't be the first Brotherhood member named after a type of vermin."

"'Ey! Toads ain't vermin, yo!"

"_This_-Toad-is."

Lance turned his face upward and met Kurt's upside-down eyes. "So whaddya think, fuzzball? 'Nightcrawler' sound like a good name?"

"Sure. It sounds… cool."

"Excellent."

"Now that that's done," Boom Boom said. "What is there to _do_ around here?"

"Bug-the-X-geeks. Complain. Wail-on-Toad. The-usual."

"Cool. That last one sounds fun."

"Aw, _man_. This just ain't fair, yo."

Boom Boom shot out a booted foot and lazily kicked Todd in the head. The pale boy went sprawling across the carpet and grumbled into the shag.

She giggled. "That _is_ fun."

"Hey… um, guys?" A new voice rumbled from amongst them, and everyone turned startled expressions toward Fred. He was twisted to look back at them, his face scrunched into a worried expression. "I think you guys better hear this."

Everyone turned their attention to the TV, and Fred turned up the volume.

The news was on. Kurt watched curiously, having little experience with such things.

A lady in a sharp suit jacket was seated at a desk, talking into the screen.

"…unsure as to the identity of the thieves, but the security cameras on the site did capture this image."

The screen flickered, and then was filled with a blurry black-and-white video of the darkened fairgrounds, complete with tents and a partially-disassembled ferris wheel in the background. As they watched, a large figure could be seen crossing the field, too far away to make out any details. However, anyone who had ever seen Fred could identify him easily.


	3. Escape Act, part 3

_(AN: To those of you asking about Kurt's teleportation powers... the short answer is that he doesn't really know about them. It'll come, don't worry. :) )_

Everyone in the Boarding House leapt forward and crowded around the TV screen, shoving against one another to see. Kurt, still hanging from the light fixtured could barely see it through Lance's hair.

The video replayed, once again showing the hulk that was Fred lumbering across the screen. If one squinted, one could see something dark thrown over his shoulder.

The woman in the jacket reappeared on the screen and said gravely, "The local authorities have been given descriptions of this mysterious thief and are working on identifying..."

The screen fuzzed over completely. Lance immediately reached out and whacked the set. The picture flickered back into focus.

"In the meantime, all citizens of Bayville are warned to be vigilant for the escaped animal. If they encounter it, they are encouraged to keep calm, keep their distance, and contact the authorities immediately."

The image changed again, and this time, Master's dark features appeared on the screen. Kurt's hackles went up.

"I just ask that, whatever happens, he not come to any harm," said Master. "I just want him back safely. You know how pets are… he's like a child to me."

The woman returned. "While its trainer assures us it is not naturally aggressive, animal control has announced that it will be searching for the animal, just to be safe. Once again, average, untrained citizens are advised to keep their distance and contact help if they spot the animal. We'll be keeping you updated as the story unfolds. Until then, this is Emily Hawthorne, Bayville News."

The image changed again, this time to a sharply-dressed man, who started talking about some sort of cooking competition. However, the Boarding House stopped listening.

"Shit!" Lance shouted, slamming a hand into the set. The screen fuzzed out, but no one was paying attention. They were too busy bracing themselves as the floor started shaking ominously. "I can't believe they saw you! We're gonna be in deep shit now!"

Kurt's light fixture cracked and broke loose, and he toppled down onto Fred's lap. The big guy casually dusted Kurt off and set him on the ground.

"Lance-calm-down-before-you-_kill_-us-please!" Pietro zipped over to Lance's side and tried to make soothing sounds. Lance shoved him away, but the shaking stopped.

"S'like the lady said, yo. They ain't IDed Freddy yet."

"And it's not like you boys haven't tumbled a couple cop cars before," Boom Boom added. "Since when do you care?"

"I'm not worried about the _cops_," Lance said irritably.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. Everyone froze where they hunkered around the malfunctioning TV set. As one, all six turned their faces toward the door.

The doorbell rang again.

Lance sighed the sigh of one about to begin a chore to end all chores. Then, he pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the door. Everyone else stayed seated in the TV room, leaning back slightly so they could still see Lance through the doorway.

Lance sent a last glance over at them, then opened the door and crossed his arms.

"Summers," he greeted coldly. "What the hell do you want?"

"Don't play dumb, Alvers," said a new voice from the other side of the door. "You know exactly why I'm here."

Lance scratched casually at his chin. "No, don't think I do. If this is about that Boom Boom chick last night, I've already given Toad the riot act, so you don't need to butt your ugly face in."

"This isn't about Tabitha—although now that you mention it, you all deserve a good kick in the tail for that. I'm here because the Blob is all over the news for stealing something rather suspicious."

"What, a freak show freak? Yeah, I saw the news too. But what the hell would we want with some blue-dyed monkey?"

"I don't know… but I'm going to find out."

"You do that, Summers. The rest of us will just be minding our own business while you spend another day in paranoia-ville." Without waiting for a reply, Lance slammed the door in the other guy's face. He glared at the wood for a while, even as a vehicle could be heard starting up and driving away outside.

After a while of sitting in tense silence, Kurt finally broke it. "So _zhat's _a Summers."

Tabitha and Todd both burst out laughing, and the tension broke.

"Yeah, foo'. That's a Summers."

"Believe it or not," Tabitha added, "there are two of them. But the younger one doesn't have a stick up his ass."

"Yeah-but-everyone-knows-Summers-the-elder-_wants_-Jeanny-to-be-a-Summers, if-you-know-what-I-mean."

Todd laughed again as Tabitha catcalled. Fred grumbled something under his breath.

Lance walked back into the room. "Hey, shut up, morons. He'll be back, and he'll have his whole dweeby crew next time."

"So what?" Tabitha sang, settling lazily back on the couch. "You boys can handle all those boy and girl scouts just fine, from what I hear. And with me and Blue here, those tight-asses don't stand a chance."

"Who-said-you-were-on-the-team?"

"I did, Speedy." She closed her hands together, and produced one of her exploding balls, tossing it up and down casually. "You got a problem with that?"

"Meep."

"Awesome." Tabitha tossed the ball at Todd, and it smoothly flew into his over-shirt.

Todd looked down on it with sudden horror, but before he could react, Lance had grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and booted him into another room. There was a popping explosion and a "YIPE!" and Todd reemerged a moment later with his hair askew and a smoking hole in his shirt.

"So," Tabitha said, kicking up her feet. "It's Saturday. You guys got anything planned?"

"We need to go 'shopping'." Lance said with a sigh. "Badly."

"You guys have money?"

"Nope. But the way we shop, we don't really need it."

"Ahaha. I get what you're saying." Tabitha sat up again. "Sure, let's go 'shop'. I've been wanting to hit the mall."

With that, everyone starting picking themselves up, dusting fallen plaster off their clothes. Kurt rose into a crouch and padded after the others as they headed into the front hall to gather wallets and bags.

"One question, yo."

Lance groaned and turned to Todd. "What?"

"We ain't just leavin' him here alone, are we?" Todd's thumb jerked toward Kurt, and Lance's brow furrowed.

"Yeah-we-can't-exactly-bring-him-into-the-open-can-we?"

"An' if we keep 'im here," Todd finished, "with the X-men an' stuff lookin' for 'im…? He'd be one fried furball, yo."

Lance rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then suddenly slanted a glance over at Fred. "Blob, you still have your duffel bag from Ironback Survival Camp?"

"Uh… yeah. I still got it."

"Great." Lance grinned down at Kurt, whose tail started twitching nervously. "It's time to see just how flexible Nightcrawler really is."

Tabitha grinned. "Yummy."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Contrary to Pietro's expectations (and probably most laws of physics), the furball actually did somehow manage to contort himself enough to squeeze into the Blob's duffel bag without any suspicious lumps or fur sticking out. Despite himself, the speedster was impressed.

They hit up the mall, committing random acts of vandalism and having a rowdy good time. It was just like old times, +2.

Tabby, psycho that she was, was actually pretty fun, providing an exciting counterpoint to Lance's standard macho leader routine. Pietro had rarely laughed harder than when she casually blew apart a hotdog cart, leaving everything within twenty feet covered in nasty mall hotdogs. Or when she and Toad had rigged the elevator to jerk up and down like some sort of theme park ride. They had all been stifling giddy laughter when the mall cops had finally showed up to help the "trapped" teens off the malfunctioning elevator. The Brotherhood rounded a corner and burst into laughter just as the cops were pulling out the yellow tape.

The furball spent most of the time curled up in the duffel bag around Fred's shoulder, but Pietro occasionally spied a yellow eye peeking out curiously. Every half hour or so, they found a quiet spot where they could let Kurt out to stretch and look around, at which point the furball volleyed off question after question. What were those ladies doing standing in the store windows? How did money work? How did someone know what size clothes to buy?

The best part was when they snuck into some high-budget action movie and sat in back with their legs thrown up on the seats in front of them. They all took turns harassing the couples making out in the seats below, even Tabby, and Todd amused himself by stealing candy and popcorn with his tongue while people weren't looking. Kurt stayed relatively quiet, crouched on the floor in front of them and peering up at the screen with wide, awed eyes. He was entirely absorbed in what was on the screen, and it occurred to Pietro that the fuzzball had never seen a movie before.

Pietro wondered idly what it would be like to have that sort of isolation, that some lame mall was so fascinating. He felt a pang of distant guilt, but violently shoved it aside. She was gone, dammit,

They all ate their share of half-eaten pizza, discarded cinnabons, and exploded hot-dogs. Pietro was rather surprised by how much Kurt ate… while perhaps not up to Freddy's standards, he could definitely out-scarf the rest of them, easily. When Pietro pointed this out, the furball just smiled sheepishly and said something like, "Vell, you'd eat a lot too, if your caretakers starved you as a form of punishment."

That shut Pietro up pretty quick.

Their outing was cut short, however, when they had a run-in with the X-geeks.

It was afternoon, and the Brotherhood was casing the food court for easy meals. Then, they spotted familiar forms around a two-piece table, a feast of fast food spread out in front of them. Summers was sitting forward, talking animatedly, his burger untouched. Jean Grey sat next to him, poking at her fries and rolling her eyes at intervals. Across the table from them was Kitty-Cat, who was munching on a salad and occasionally responding to Summers. Next to her was Rogue, who sat back and glared darkly at her chicken wing basket. At the end of the table between Jeanny and Rogue, stuffing his face with greasy pizza, was Evan Daniels.

Pietro could feel that twitchy, adrenaline-filled rush coming over him… the one he always got when Daniels was around. Shredhimhurthimmakehimcry…

All Lance had to do was send the rest of them a smirk, and they all nodded. With that, their leader strode forward casually, the rest of them trailing behind.

"Heya, Pretty Kitty," Lance said, dropping himself into the open seat at the end between Kitty and Summers. He took a baby tomato from Kitty's salad and popped it in his mouth. "What you staring at, Summers?"

"L-Lance!" Kitty said, a smile tugging at her features, and her hand reaching up to fluff her ponytail. "Like, what are you doing here?"

Pietro was sure there was going to be more to that conversation, but he stopped caring. Target locked. You may fire when ready.

"Well-well, how's-it-going-Daniels? Gotten-kicked-out-of-your-fancy-Institute-yet?"

Just as Pietro had known he would, Daniels flew off the handle right away. His rival turned to glare at him, raising an arm menacingly. "Lay off, Pietro! I'm eating!"

"Oooh, snappy-comeback-as-usual."

("Ack. Toad, please don't slime my fries. I'm trying to eat them."

"Yeh, I know. So am I.")

"Like I need to be snappy to match _you_."

"You-could-never-hope-to-match-_me_-Daniels. In-anything."

("Ooh, chicken wings! Yoink!"

"Tabby, yeh joined _them_? What are yeh thinkin', girl? Don't make the same mistake Ah did.")

"You talk big, but _I'm _part of the team that keeps winning. You're nothing but hot air, man."

"Not-as-hot-as-the-air-that-blows-out-your-'bad-boy'-ass-every-time-you-scarf-yourself-full-of-this-crap."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Let's-put-it-this-way… Toad-smells-better-than-you-do."

("So what do you say to you, me, and a movie, Kitty-Cat?"

A giggle. "Lance! I'm, like, totally supposed to be watching you for anything suspicious right now!"

"Aw, don't hate me just because Summers is a paranoid pansy."

"Take a hint and leave, Alvers."

"Was I talking to you, boy scout?")

"Also, your-jump-shot-is-slipping."

Daniels's chair scraped as he jumped out of it and got himself in Pietro's face. "That's it! You, me, right now!"

And it went as usual from there.

Five minutes later, the Brotherhood was embroiled in a no-powers battle in the middle of the mall food court. Blob had Summers in a headlock while Kitty tried to pummel him from behind. Rogue was keeping Lance busy while Jean tried to talk a bored-looking Tabitha into returning to the Institute. Pietro was, of course, focused on Daniels, which left Todd free to kick whoever got in range.

Ten minutes after that, all ten teens were being escorted off the premises by mall security. Once outside, the two groups spent a long minute glaring at one another, then turned and pointedly headed off in different directions.

It wasn't until the Brotherhood had been walking for a couple minutes that Fred suddenly stopped. The others paused when they noticed (but not before Toad had run into Lance's back and gone sprawling onto the pavement).

"What's up, big guy?" Tabitha asked curiously.

"The bag… I took it off during the fight. I don't think I picked it up again."

Everyone stared at Fred in silence, slow horror creeping over them.

"You left the furball," Lance said slowly, "who half the city is looking for, and who has no chance of blending in, alone in the middle of the busy mall on a Saturday?"

"Yeah."

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then, Toad swore colorfully.

"Well, let's go back for him," Lance decided.

"Forget-him. I'm-sick-of-the-mall."

Lance threw Pietro a hard look, which made the speedster bristle. "No way! We gave him a codename: that means he's Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood sticks together."

"'Sides," Fred added. "I like 'im."

"Me too," Tabitha added. "If Blue's staying, I'm definitely staying."

Pietro crossed his arms stubbornly and pointed out, "They're-not-exactly-going-to-let-us-in-through-the-front-door-after-the-fight-we-just-had."

That made everyone pause. Pietro didn't bother to hide his smug grin.

Lance finally made an executive decision. "Then we're not going in through the front."

"Yeah!" Toad whooped. "I love doin' it the back way, yo!"

Tabitha coughed to hide a laugh, while Pietro gave Toad a speculative look.

"You-know-I-always-suspected."

Toad realized what he'd said and went an odd mix of green and red. "'Ey, shut up."

Lance gave everyone involved a shove. "Come on. Let's go suit up. Something tells me this day isn't over yet."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurt, for his part, was starting to get worried. Fred had set him under the table when things had exploded with the other group (the "X-men" or "X-geeks" the guys kept referring to, if he'd heard right), and he'd been content to watch and try to understand what they were fighting about. He couldn't really figure it out… both sides seemed to get riled up over little things.

But then, security had shown up and walked everyone out of Kurt's hearing range. He'd been in enough carnivals and fairs to know what security did to people who fought on the fairgrounds… they were escorted off and usually banned.

The Brotherhood wouldn't be coming back for him.

He fought not to fidget in the bag, since he was still in a very public place. Certain muscles were beginning to ache from being bent in odd positions, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. If he so much as twitched, he might be discovered.

After about five minutes sitting alone under the table, two pairs of tennis shoes walked right up to him.

"Huh," a male voice said. "Someone left a bag here… do you see anyone, Millie?"

"No," said a female voice. "Should we, like, call the mall cops or something?"

"Um… nah. There's a lost and found down by the information desk. We can just take it there."

"Ooooh, you're so thoughtful, Jason."

The bag was hefted off the ground, with some staggering from the person carrying it.

"Oof."

"Do you need any help?"

"Nah." The boy's voice was strained, but full of bravado. "I can handle it."

"Okay…" the girl sounded unsure, but nonetheless headed off through the mall. The boy followed, and Kurt was afforded a rather impressive view of the girl's wiggling miniskirt through his little zipper eyehole.

Two minutes later, he was dropped rather roughly on a desk, and a woman wearing a vest and nametag tugged the bag towards herself.

The boy was breathing heavily. "Someone left this in the food court."

"Thank you," said the vested woman. "I'll put it in the lost and found."

The young couple walked off, leaving Kurt with the woman.

She tried to tug the bag toward her again. "Jesus. What's in this thing?"

Kurt's hackles went up as the woman's hand went for the zipper. _Scheisse._

The tell-tale zzzzzzzzzzip sound was a death knell, and Kurt tensed, everything coiled and ready. A moment later, the woman screamed, "OH MY GOD!" and Kurt burst into motion.

He tore out of the bag, landing in a crouch on a marble desk attached to a circular kiosk in the middle of the mall. The mall extended off in two directions, lined with outlets and shops. In one direction, he could see the umbrellas and tables of the food court. There was another story above him, the balconies accessible by a staircase a hundred feet away.

Gasps and screams arose in all directions as mallgoers saw him, and the lost-and-found woman stumbled back and fell behind the desk.

"Oh my god! What is that thing?"

"Stay behind me, Anna."

"It's that animal from the carnival! I saw it on the news!"

"Someone call the cops!"

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!"

Scared, staring faces all around… it was something he was far too familiar with. Some were pulling out cell phones, while others were running in the opposite direction or hiding in the nearby stores. Most, however, just stared.

Kurt fell into the performance automatically, growling and baring his fangs for the crowd. He paced a circle on the desk, looking for an escape route… but he was entirely surrounded. And now he could see mall security coming for him from both directions. No escape…

…except _up_.

He leapt up and climbed to the highest point of the kiosk, to much flinching and gasping from the crowd. Master had always taken advantage of the way he climbed—like he was crawling across walls and ceilings—to help disconcert audiences. It was just one of many things about him that freaked people out.

He paused at the top of the kiosk to look below him. The security officers had reached the desk, and some were climbing over it. The lost-and-found lady continued to cower under it.

Then Kurt looked up and did some quick judging. There was no way he could reach the high, arched ceiling… but the second-floor balconies were within easy jumping distance.

He coiled his legs and exploded forward, latching onto the balcony and climbing easily over the guard rail. The security patrols shouted from below.

A new series of gasps and shouts rose around him as he landed on the second floor, but Kurt ignored them. He scampered on all fours through the crowd, dodging around most people before they had even registered his presence, trying to put distance between himself and the nearest staircase.

A speaker buzzed on overhead, but instead of introducing him like he was used to from the fair, this announcer had a different message for the crowd:

"Please remain calm, but by order of the Bayville police department, all customers and personnel are required to evacuate the building. Everyone, please file toward the nearest exit in a calm and orderly manner."

Everything burst into panicked motion around him, and the mall became anything but 'calm and orderly.' Kurt suddenly had the challenge of dodging through stampeding crowds. He got kicked several times and nearly run over by a stroller before he decided to take to the walls.

And that's what he did, hopping up to scamper sideways along the wall… which of course evoked more screams. (He wasn't _doing_ anything! Why was everyone so scared?) He could see mall cops heading toward him in front of him, and swiftly changed direction to crawl across the arched ceiling. Security was left standing against the guard rail as Kurt dropped down on the balcony on the other side of the mall. Then, he was off again, dodging and weaving like a dog through traffic.

The mall was emptying. This meant he had fewer obstacles to deal with as he dodged through the building, but it also meant that the guards too had an easier path toward him. Suddenly, he turned a corner into a service hallway, and saw a new set of uniforms heading toward him.

Animal control.

He skidded to a stop halfway down the hallway and bared his fangs with a growl, just as they noticed his presence. They raised their various props—nets, electric prods, and a large wire cage—but Kurt refused to be afraid. These were things for capturing an animal, and Kurt was no animal.

The animal control people carefully stepped toward him, and the guards were closing in behind him at a run. He made a quick decision and charged toward the animal control ops. They fell into ready positions and prepared their various props for an animal attack.

Except that Kurt wasn't attacking.

At the last minute before he would have run into the animal control wall-of-pain, he coiled his haunches and leapt, bouncing off the wall above them and sailing clear over them. In the moment they took to recover, the security staff collided into them, catching both groups in a painful, vaguely electric tangle. By the time the two groups had recovered, Kurt was long gone.

Kurt found himself in a small, cold maintenance hallway, full of crannies and malfunctioning fluorescent lights. In short: it was the perfect place for him. He crept along the ceiling, flitting into closets and side hallways whenever a mall staff member happened to run through. Everyone was certainly in a rush: whether to find him or to escape him, he wasn't sure. Either way, each patter of running footsteps was a reminder of why he couldn't go out in public, and why he was so lucky the Brotherhood had found him.

His goal was to escape this mess and somehow return to the boarding house. If he could evade capture. And if they still wanted him, after a mess like this. There were quite a few "ifs" in the situation, but he really couldn't afford to dwell on them right now.

He paused at a fork in the corridor. The left path went on straight a ways, and had a janitor's cart in the middle of the way, equipped with mops, vacuums, and rows of chemicals, just like the carts at the fair. The right path, however, had all of its lights out, and turned about twenty feet ahead. It was an obvious choice which one would be easier to hide in, so he headed down the right corridor.

However, something didn't feel right. His stomach started tying itself in knots, his heartbeat speeding into an irregular rhythm. Had he heard something? No, there was a scent. Something… no, it was gone. Maybe he was imagining it?

He stopped halfway down the darkened hallway and turned partially around to look behind him, back the way he'd come. His only movement was the ponderous swishing of his tail, and the only thing visible in the shadowed corridor was the glow of his eyes.

Everything was still. Even the sounds of footfalls had faded away. The only thing Kurt could hear was his own shallow breathing.

Carefully, Kurt turned back and continued down the hallway. He had just turned the corner at the other end when he thought he heard a _squeeaaak_. He automatically leapt up onto the wall and clung close to it, peering behind him again.

Nothing.

_Was?_

He was imagining things; he'd lost the pursuers. He needed to relax and get out.

He let himself drop from the wall and scampered swiftly around the corner. His heartbeat was speeding up all on its own, and Kurt raised his pace to match. Soon enough, he was sprinting down the darkened hallway at full tilt.

There was a scent. He was _sure _there was.

He ran under a single flickering light: the only light in the hallway. Then, just as fast as he'd begun, Kurt pulled up, skidding across the cement floor, his eyes wide with fear.

A dead end. There were doors on either side of him, but he didn't need to try them to know they were locked, because that scent was getting a lot stronger, and this time he recognized it.

Corn dogs. Hay. A hint of musk.

_Nein… NEIN!_

"You didn't think I'd let you go that easily… did you, my rebellious demon?"

Kurt whirled. There, a burly silhouette to anyone but the mutant, was his master. He carried a snare pole—a leash loop on a long metal pole—and wore the self-satisfied smirk of a cat who had just caught its mouse and had every intention of playing with its food.

Kurt's hackles rose as high as they could under Todd's shirt, and he backed away unconsciously. He could hear a high-pitched whimpering sound filling the hallway, and Master certainly wasn't the one making it.

"Now come here like a good little monster, and I'll take you back where you belong."


	4. Escape Act, part 4

"Now come here like a good little monster, and I'll take you back where you belong.".

Kurt trembled as he backed up. No… no, he didn't want to go back!

"Didn't you hear me? Come here." Master's voice was coaxing, but with an underlying sharpness that promised many future punishments for his rebelliousness.

His rump hit the wall, and his shaking worsened. Despite the terror that threatened to consume him, he shook his head. No, he wouldn't come.

This threw Master off. Master tilted his head. "This little bout of disobedience has really done a number on you, hasn't it? How about this: come here now, and maybe I won't cut off the tips of your ears."

Kurt froze, and a whisper escaped him. "You vouldn't."

"Again with the _speaking_. Bad boy."

"You vouldn't dare touch mein ears," Kurt growled, gaining confidence. The fear was seeping away, replaced by a much hotter, much more satisfying emotion.

"I can dare to do anything I want to with you. You are my property. A fact which you seem to have forgotten."

"But you'd never take avay somezhing zhat made me different." Kurt was shaking for an entirely different reason now. "It is zhings like mein ears zhat make me scary. Vizhout zhat, I'm no good to you." Master hesitated, obviously reaching the inevitable conclusion at the same time Kurt did. "So you'd never do _anyzhing_ to permanently harm me. I have nozhing to fear from you."

Master's grin froze into a rictus for a second, but then resumed its oily confidence. "You're right, my demon… and that's why you should come back with me. With me, you're secure. You've seen how people react when you're out in the open."

"Zhat's only because _you_ made zhem zhink of me like zhat!" Kurt snarled.

"I did nothing but prey upon their intact preconceptions. Face it, demon: you are something out of the human race's collective nightmares. The best you can ever hope for is to embrace it and use it to your advantage… in conditions where people are less likely to fear you. Like at the carnival. With me."

It was Kurt's turn to hesitate, his yellow eyes flickering uncertainly. It was true: everyone was afraid of him, no matter what he did. It was dangerous to forge on alone… he needed some sort of protection. That was why he'd never even tried to escape the carnival. As horrible as that existence had been, at least he was alive for it.

Master saw his hesitance, and pressed his advantage, taking a cautious step toward him. "Come back with me, demon. Come back to your safe little cage. It's where you belong."

Kurt could feel himself wilt. Security. Master was offering him security, just as he always had. There was nowhere else he could hope to function. He didn't move as he felt a loop slip around his neck, ready to lead him back where he belonged.

Kurt stiffened.

_Belonged? _

He'd never belonged anywhere… he'd always been an outsider, even at the circus and freak shows. Something to be kept in a cage.

But he shouldn't—_wouldn't—_be left in a cage… cages were for animals. Verdammt, he was a person!

His head snapped up toward Master, eyes burning, and a powerful scream tore from his throat. It was a fully human sound, and it bore all his rage and terror and suppression, the sound of a human boy pushed past his limit and forced to bear things no boy ever ought to.

Something inside him tore open, and an old memory surged up through the cracks. The scent of brimstone. A possibility he'd never let himself consider. Liberation.

No cages. Never again.

Using only a vague memory for guidance, he willed himself out of the snare and away from Master. He tore through something and his stomach flipped. A brief sensation of dropping. The overpowering scent of brimstone. And then he was standing behind Master in a cloud of smoke.

In a vicious motion, he leapt upon the man's back and clung on, propelling them both forward into the wall. He wrapped his hands around Master's throat, digging in for all he was worth. The man's thick hands dropped the snare pole to pry Kurt's hands off his throat, and Kurt's tail whipped around the grab the pole, just as Master shoved him off and tossed him down the corridor.

Master turned toward him, panting heavily as Kurt clattered across the ground. With the ease of a natural acrobat, the boy rolled upright and faced his keeper. In the flickering of the light overhead, it was easy to see the new resolution in the demon's eyes.

Then, Kurt passed the snare pole from his tail to his hands, daring to stand upright. He sketched a hunched figure, and the muscles in his thighs and stomach burned with the unfamiliar exertion, but he refused to be forced onto all fours any longer.

"What do you think you're going to do with that?" Master sneered.

Kurt didn't answer. Master laughed and stalked forward. He swung a large, meaty fist, and Kurt dodged, moving somewhat clumsily on two legs. Still, he brought the pole around to whack the man in the back of the head. Master's hand came around to grab at Kurt's arm, but Kurt just had to spend a still moment to concentrate and, _bamf_, he was on Master's other side.

He was breathing hard now, and unsure of why, but did his best to ignore it. He swung the pole up and swiftly brought the loop down around Master's head. Master whirled swiftly, but not swiftly enough to prevent the tightening of the noose.

Kurt yanked the man downwards, sending him sprawling on the ground. Master clutched futilely at the loop around his neck as Kurt stood up straight and held the pole steady.

Finally, when he realized that the mutant boy wasn't administering a slow death by strangling, the man turned his head and peered up at Kurt from his spot on his knees.

"Now you know vhat it feels like, ja?"

The man started to get up. "What the hell are you-URK!" Kurt had jerked the pole, sending the man sprawling on the ground again.

"Now you vill listen to me," Kurt said steadily. "I am not your property. I am a person. Und as such, claiming to own me is _slavery_, vhich I am given to understand is _illegal_."

Master started to say something into the concrete, but Kurt gave the pole another tug, silencing him.

"Furthermore, you vill call off zhe dogs. I don't care how: claim you caught me. Or found me dead. I don't care. But if I ever hear of you siccing _animal control_ on me again, I vill hunt you down and show you vhat eight years of repression can make someone capable of."

Master had stopped struggling, breathing heavily and watching Kurt out of the corner of his eye.

"Now I am going to leave, und you vill find a new act, und ve vill never see vun anozher again. Because if ve do, I vill put you on zhe news for an entirely different reason. Do ve understand vun anozher?"

Master—no, the man who _had been_ Master—stared up at him for a long time. Kurt held the gaze, daring the man to respond with anything but agreement.

At last, the man gave a miniscule nod, his face grim. Kurt nodded back, but hesitated before letting go. A nasty voice in the back of his head wanted him to pull the noose. Strangle the man who had caused him so much pain. No one had to know.

Something of his thoughts must have shown, because the man's eyes suddenly glinted with real fear for the first time. That was what made the decision. He slipped the spade of his tail under the noose and flipped the loop off the man's head.

"Be zhankful _vun_ of us is human."

With that, he ran through his mental map of the mall around him. Suddenly, he understood the purpose of his spatial sense. He could sense where he was in relation to other places he'd been… and he suddenly knew how to get there. He remembered a particular spot in the mall, where he felt safe and happy, and knew exactly where it was… east and up.

He gave the man one last look. The man was no longer meeting his gaze, but instead bore a defeated slouch.

Kurt almost smiled. Then, _bamf_; he was gone.

He reappeared a moment later in the back of the dark, vacated movie theater. Then, his strength suddenly fled him, and a different kind of darkness swallowed him up.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Scott had always prided himself in being a role model for the rest of his team. He was dependable, focused, and, above all, mature beyond his years.

Therefore, despite how much he might have wanted to, he did not say, "I told you so."

The team had reluctantly followed when he led them on a mission to keep tabs on the Brotherhood. They had sat with minimal eye rolling while he'd given them their assignments. They had even humored him by allowing him to bring their uniforms in the car when they headed to the mall.

Scott was used to this sort of behavior, and was proud that the younger trio had lasted as long as they had that day (though, judging by the size of her shopping bags, he suspected that Kitty had snuck away from her post more than once). They had nothing riding on this; as far as they were concerned, Scott was freaking out because a bit of blurry security tape had shown what might have been the Blob stealing a dyed monkey. As Lance had said that very morning: what on earth would the Brotherhood want with something like that?

Only he and Jean had heard the Professor's suspicions that the "dyed monkey" or "demon" (depending on the source) was actually not an animal, but a mutant. Cerebro apparently had yet to detect the mutant (and it wouldn't until the mutant used his powers), but Professor Xavier was fairly confident all the same. If the Brotherhood had, in fact, gotten their hands on another mutant, the X-men would lose their number advantage. Scott was familiar enough with strategy to know that a single piece could change the entire game.

Jean, on the other hand, seemed to take a different view of the situation. In her view, this was a rescue mission. To her, the Brotherhood had obviously kidnapped the mutant… Scott wasn't so sure, but he wasn't about to voice his doubts aloud. First, it wasn't as if Jean—with her powers—wouldn't know his feelings anyway. Second, showing disparity between the two more mature members might make the younger trio even less agreeable.

However, the Brotherhood did nothing all morning except the standard petty mayhem. It irked Scott to see them get away with effectively destroying an elevator, but it wasn't his right to call them out on it. They were there to learn something about the missing blue mutant, not harass the Brotherhood for going about business as usual.

Eventually, even Scott was forced to give up, and everyone regrouped at the food court. Ten minutes later, the Brotherhood descended upon their table. Fifteen minutes after that, Scott was watching the Brotherhood walk off after both teams had been escorted off the premises by security.

"So can we go home now?" Rogue grumbled, but kept her two shopping bags close at hand.

"Yeah," added Kitty. "I've, like, totally spent all my allowance."

Scott kept his eyes on the retreating figures until a warm hand fell on his shoulder. He turned, and relaxed as he regarded Jean's warm smile.

"Let's go, Scott. We can try again tomorrow."

Scott suppressed a sigh, but nonetheless led everyone to his car and helped the others load their bags in a way that somehow still gave everyone somewhere to sit. It was more difficult than it really should have been… he blamed Evan's weakness for all things electronic, Rogue's addiction to Goth Topic, and Kitty's… Kitty-ness. Eventually, they got it figured out and headed off.

And then, while Evan and Rogue were arguing over which of Evan's new CDs they would play on the ride home, Scott was so preoccupied with telling the both of them that he wasn't going to be playing _anything_ from Evan's stack that he nearly missed the van speeding in the other direction.

The cop cars following it were rather difficult to miss, though, since their sirens were on full blast.

Scott stopped mid-sentence and watched the speeding procession. One animal control van followed by three police cruisers… all heading in the opposite direction. Toward the mall.

Scott made a split-second decision at the next stop-light, screeching into the left lane and pulling a U-turn while the left-turn signal flashed from yellow to red. Then, he gunned his car, glad that he'd opted for a fast and sleek sports number. It made it much easier to dodge through traffic after speeding police cars.

As they pulled up in the mall parking lot, Evan whispered, "Whoa."

Things had changed drastically in the last couple minutes. Multiple police and animal control vehicles were parked in front of the mall. Meanwhile, hundreds of people milled around the parking lot… some heading for their cars and others just standing to gawk at the police cars.

"This, ladies and gentlemen," Evan supplied, "is what it looks like when shit hits the fan."

"I'll say," Kitty said. "Like, what are the chances something big would happen right after we left?"

"Considering the Brotherhood left at the same time," Scott said with a frown, "I'd say pretty good." He steered his car carefully through the crowds. There was no possible way they'd get in through the front… not with all these police cruisers around.

He was still pretty confused about what the Brotherhood was up to. Apparently, they'd set the demon mutant loose in the mall, then left. He wasn't sure what they were aiming for, but he intended to find out.

Scott parked the car off to the side, away from the police line and the arriving news crews. "All right."

"Wait, wait," Rogue drawled. "Let me guess… 'suit up'?"

Scott gave her a Look.

"Come on," Jean prodded, ever the mediator. "We need to get him before the authorities do."

Everyone nodded, and they picked up the bags that hid their uniforms. Then, they headed over to the side of the mall and Kitty let them in the way only she could.

A quick visit to the bathrooms later, everyone was suited up and ready for action… whatever kind of action was waiting for them. The mall was completely empty, except for the distant movement of the occasional security, police, or animal patrol.

"Okay. Outline time," Scott said, and everyone waited attentively in a service hallway. That was the benefit of uniforms: it put everyone in battle mode much more willingly. "There's a blue, furry humanoid somewhere in this store, possibly mutant and possibly hostile."

"Mutant?" Rogue gasped.

"You, like, never mentioned anything about that!" Kitty added.

Evan raised his hand. "I'm more concerned about the 'possibly hostile' part."

"Our mission," Scott continued as if he'd never been interrupted, "is to find and subdue him before the authorities do. If he is, in fact, a mutant, then we have the Professor's permission to extend an invitation to join the Institute."

Looks were exchanged, but everyone remained quiet this time.

"We can't afford to be detected, so we have to tread cautiously. Two groups: one heading north and the other south. Rogue and Evan, I want you to stick close to Kitty. Kitty, if you hear anyone coming, take all of you through the nearest wall."

"Like, duh."

"Jean and I will be scouting the other side of the mall, and will stay in psychic contact. If you see a sign of our target, give a shout and your location."

"Got it," said Evan.

"See ya," Rogue said with a wave, and the trio was off.

Scott watched them for a moment, until Jean gently steered him off in the other direction. "Don't worry. I can hear the patrol officers… they're almost done with their sweep."

"And they haven't found him?"

"Not yet."

"What happens if they don't find him?"

Jean paused, closing her eyes and putting a hand to her temple. Then, she opened her eyes and turned to Scott. "They're going to keep the mall locked up and wait a couple hours for the 'animal' to give them a trail to follow."

Scott raised an eyebrow. "So the mall will be completely empty in a couple minutes?"

"If they don't find the mutant, yes."

Scott felt his smile tugging at his lips. "I think I smell the Professor in this."

"Or maybe we're just incredibly lucky."

"Tell the others to lay low until the mall's cleared out. Then, we can search unhindered."

Jean closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. "Done. Come on, let's go find somewhere for us to 'lay low' too."

She led him into a clothing store. Being led into a private, secluded spot by the girl of his dreams… Scott found little reason to protest.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

…_.rumblerumblerumble…._

Kurt groaned and flopped over, and heard cardboard crunch as he rolled on top of something. He idly wondered what cardboard was doing in his cage… had some kid been throwing things at him again?

A moment later, he remembered everything, and he smiled.

He pushed himself up off the cinema floor, making faces at the various bits of theater food that had stuck to his fur. He brushed them off as best he could, groaning over the gum that was stuck to his ankle.

…_rumblerumblerumblerumble…_

_Was?_

Kurt paused, pulling himself up onto the backs of the seats to look around, but the movie theater was in the same state as when he'd passed out: dark and empty.

As to that… he wasn't _entirely_ sure why he'd passed out, but he had a pretty good idea. He could remember, now, the one time he had used his ability before: a terrible night full of fire and terror that he had been recalling in nightmarish snippets for years. Now, he understood how he'd escaped that terror… even though his parents hadn't.

He could see their faces now, haggard and bruised by the people who had once been their neighbors. They had given everything for him, just so he could escape. It nearly hadn't worked, until the fire had become too much. The next thing Kurt knew, he was somewhere else, and then he'd slept for a very long time. When he'd woken up, he was in the wagon of a fortune teller at a Bavarian circus.

He wondered how long he'd been out. His muscles were achy and he'd never felt so hungry, but something told him he hadn't been unconscious very long at all.

…_rumblerumblerumblerumble…_

Kurt quirked an ear. There was that sound again… heavy and low, like the earth itself was growling nearby. And now that he listened, he could hear shouts, too. And crashes. And a high-pitched squeal.

_Todd!_

Kurt barely dared to hope as he scampered toward the entrance of the cinema. Had they actually come back for him?

Carefully, he wove his way out of the mall theater, the sounds getting louder with every door he passed through. It wasn't long before he recognized the noises as the sounds of a fight. It sent nasty memories coursing through him, and his steps unconsciously slowed down in anticipation of more pain. Several times, he'd hear a nasty blow or a crash and stop entirely… but then he would hear Lance shout, or Todd screech, and he would forge on again.

Soon enough he was working his way through the main part of the mall, following the sounds. He turned a corner and then swiftly hopped back into concealment. He had located the battle, and he didn't need to see it up close to know it was far above his own abilities.

_Zzzzzzzip. Zzzzzzzip._

_Whoosh!_

_Blam._

_Zzzzzzzzip._

"Knock it off, Pietro!" someone shouted.

"Why-don't-you-make-me-Daniels?"

"Fine: I WILL!"

Kurt winced as the speedster gave a pained yelp.

He had to do something. They wouldn't have been here if not for him.

He turned and climbed up, over, and onto the second floor balcony. Then, staying low, he crept toward the sounds of the fight, peeking out to see where everyone was.

The food court was a mess. The floor tiles had long, cracked lines running through them, and over half the tables had been pushed over or smashed. Scorch marks and little bony spikes were scattered around, seemingly randomly.

The easiest form to see was Freddy, who was swinging his meaty fists at a girl who seemed to go right through them. Pietro lay in a pile of upset tables, looking dazed. Tabitha stood on a table and made motions that looked like she was blowing kisses at a boy with spikes sticking out of his arm, except her kisses were round and exploded on impact.

Lance was the one who had been making the rumbling sounds. His eyes rolled up in his head, and a crack sped across the ground under a girl with a white stripe in her hair. The girl nearly lost her balance and tipped forward, but caught herself on one hand and used that to propel herself toward Lance as soon as the ground stopped shaking. Todd was busy hopping circles around Summers, who had a hand to some sort of visor, and kept zapping long red beams at the dodging opponent.

As Kurt watched, another person stepped into view from below his balcony, one hand to her temples while the other gestured toward an iron food court chair. Kurt's eyes widened as the chair lifted off the ground and went soaring toward Fred, who had chased the untouchable girl over to Pietro's table pile.

The chair hit its mark, clonking Fred hard across the head. Fred paused in his attack, blinking ponderously. Then, his eyes rolled up in his head, and he toppled inevitably onto Pietro, who gave a panicked "Hey-wait-OH-CRA-OOOMPH!"

Lance was subdued by the white-streaked girl and promptly tossed on the pile, freeing all three girls to go after Boom Boom.

The blonde had chased her prey into hiding behind an overturned table, but this unfortunately distracted her. A plant pot flew by all on its own and swept the legs out from under her.

"Hey! I was standing here!"

She whipped around just in time to be pinned to the ground by the white-striped girl's heavy black boot. The girl cracked her knuckles and smirked over at Summers. "Finished takin' out the trash, Scott?"

"Just about." Summers sent one well-aimed beam right into Todd's butt, making the pale boy squeal and scramble for cover deeper in the chaos. Todd fled the scene while Lance groaned vaguely and Pietro made some muffled angry sounds.

It was not a happy scene.


	5. Escape Act, part 5

Summers made his way toward the pile of defeated Brotherhood, and stood threateningly over Lance as the other boy regained consciousness. Kurt's eyes narrowed, and he crept toward the edge of the balcony above the scene.

"It serves you right for breaking and entering."

"Screw you, Summers," Lance groaned. "You're here too, in case you haven't noticed."

"Only because of what you guys did. What were you thinking, setting someone like that loose in the mall? Are you still trying to expose us or something?"

"Fuck off. You don't know what you're talking about."

"Then how about you enlighten me?"

"Scott." That came from the red-head. "We're not here to pick a fight."

Todd's head poked out from behind a fast food counter. "Yeh, Summers. So just shoo already. YEEP!" His head disappeared again as a bone spike soared through the spot it had been a moment ago.

Kurt's tail twitched thoughtfully. The Brotherhood had obviously lost this fight with the X-men. He wasn't sure what they were fighting about, and he had very little experience with fighting back against anyone, but something pressed him to step in for the sake of the ones that had taken him in.

They had come back for him. It was the least he could do to return the favor.

The X-men were confident in their victory and unaware of his presence. He could use that. His eyes narrowed as he remembered the way Summers kept his visor steady when he shot those beams out of his eyes. His eyes flickered up to the air above Summers, his mind working to judge distance and get a solid spatial sense of the objects around the food court.

His only option was to give them hell. If all else failed, at least he was used to the sensation of being beaten up.

_Bamf._

He appeared in a puff of smoke ten feet above Summers and braced for impact just as he landed on the guy's shoulders. The young man stumbled and made a surprised sound, even as Kurt's misshapen hands grabbed at the visor. A moment later, Summers got a grip on his shirt and threw his assailant over his shoulder, but not before Kurt had yanked the boy's visor off. The blue mutant managed not to drop the visor as he skidded across the broken floor, somersaulting and finally rolling upright to face Summers.

"Whoa," whispered the spiked boy from somewhere to his left.

Slowly, Kurt rose to stand upright, the visor held tight in his twitching tail. His focus was steadily on the leader of the other team, who had clamped a hand over his eyes but still spun around, ready to be attacked. Everyone else was motionless, staring at him.

There was that anger again, bubbling up inside him.

Suddenly, the visor felt like it vanished from his grip, his tail coiling around itself oddly in its abrupt absence. He spun around, and came face-to-face with the untouchable girl… 'Kitty,' Lance had called her.

The girl froze as soon as Kurt turned, the visor forgotten in her grip. Her face paled, her mouth dropped open slightly, and her eyes widened so that the whites could be seen all around her irises. It was terror, plain and simple: the irrational fear that Kurt had been facing his entire life.

Suddenly, that boiling emotion turned white-hot. Verdammt, this girl could _walk through other people_. Why _im Namen Gott_ was she afraid of him?

His lips lifted in a snarl, showing his fangs. Never letting her gaze break from his own, he bent aggressively toward the girl, until she had to lean back to keep their noses from touching.

"Boo."

She shrieked and overbalanced backward onto the ground. Then, Boom Boom released one of her explosions at the girl with striped hair, and everything was back in motion.

The ground started rumbling warningly, signaling that Lance was ready for another round, and the spiked boy popped a row of spines out of his arm and ran to meet him.

Then, Kurt felt an odd, rubbery pressure around him, and his body was lifted several feet off the ground. It was as if he was borne up in a bubble of air.

He turned his head, and saw that the red-head had one hand at her temple, the other extended toward him, and a look of deep concentration on her face.

When she saw she had his attention, she said with some difficulty, "You don't have to fight us. Please, we just want to talk."

As if on cue, Todd flew by, being whipped through the air by the striped girl's grip on his tongue. He slammed into a balcony with an "Urk."

Kurt gave her a disbelieving look and pushed against the pressure around him, realizing that this was just another cage. He no longer feared cages.

_Bamf._

"What? Where did he-" That was as far as the red-head got before Kurt tackled her from behind, sending them both skidding across the tiles.

"He's a teleporter!" Summers shouted from somewhere nearby.

Kurt felt that pressure again, faster this time. The red-head was pushing him off of her. He spiraled through the air, landing roughly in a stack of upended tables.

Freddy lumbered past, weathering a rain of bone spikes like they were raindrops, and then something moved to Kurt's left. The stripe-haired girl was running for him, a bare hand outstretched. Kurt tensed and scrambled against the furniture to try to find his footing, but she was coming down too fast. All he could do was brace himself for impact.

Suddenly, a silver blur swept by, knocking the girl into a trash can. A moment later, Pietro was over Kurt, helping extract him from the tangle of tables. "Don't-let-that-one-touch-you," he said, querulously picking a gummy bear from Kurt's coat. "Trust-me-it's-not-pretty."

"Danke," Kurt said, turning back to face the threat. The girl had been picked up (literally) by Freddy. Which left spike-boy…

"Hey Pietro! Think fast!"

Pietro and Kurt both whirled around in time to see a rain of spikes flying their way.

_Fwip._

_Bamf._

The spikes thunked harmlessly into a nearby wall. A moment later, spike-boy was clotheslined by a speedster and then pinned to the ground by one of his own spikes through his shirt, courtesy of the blue demon.

Pietro and Kurt were just picking themselves up when the air started whirling wildly around them, as if a wind were suddenly blowing through the mall. One of Boom Boom's poppers whizzed by dangerously close to Kurt's ear.

"Shit!" he heard Lance say from somewhere within a ring of destruction "The cavalry's here."

"You got that right, bub." _Sniiiikt._

Everyone stopped fighting, just like that. Kurt looked around, finally locating two newcomers standing on the balconies above them. On the left balcony was an elegant woman with dark skin and white hair, her posture one of calm and confidence. On the right balcony was a stout, hairy man with metal claws coming out of his knuckles. His stance was entirely about suppressed aggression.

"Aw, man," Todd whined, slinking away from his current opponent—the red-head—and hopping his way into Freddy's shadow. "Let's get out of here, yo, before Claws uses us for target practice."

Lance stared up at the burly man, his jaw set stubbornly to hide what was probably fear. Kurt knew all about that.

The elegant woman spoke gently, but firmly. "I suggest we leave this place: _all_ of us. We have done enough damage for today."

The X-men all hung their heads guiltily.

"Yeah, whatever," Lance said with forced nonchalance. He spun on his heel and started away. "Come on guys; we got what we came for."

Freddy and Todd started after Lance, and Pietro followed a moment later, after zipping over to the kiosk to grab Freddy's large duffel bag, still lying on the counter top. Tabitha blew a last kiss at spike-boy, then sashayed after the boys.

Kurt hesitated a moment, wondering at the odd dynamic that had filled the building just now. These two newcomers were older, and the younger X-men obviously respected them as figures of authority. Who was she, whose expression was so gentle and matronly? And he who had a demeanor more wild than Kurt's had ever been?

Summers seemed to slump, as if he bore the responsibility of the mall's destruction on his own shoulders. Kitty was cringed up like she expected punishment, but it wasn't the terror of pain and starvation that had so often paralyzed Kurt, but something much milder. As if she'd never known terror like Kurt had. The spiked boy was still picking himself up, but did so quietly so as not to call attention to himself. The stripe-haired girl had her arms crossed defensively, but might as well have been standing in line to buy a hot dog, for all the attention she was paying everyone.

Only the red-head seemed to still register the Brotherhood's presence. Her eyes were steadily on Kurt, a deep sadness in them. He wasn't sure what to make of it; he'd never seen someone bear such…. empathy toward him before. Was that what it was? Why?

"Nightcrawler, come on."

That was all he'd ever wanted to hear.

Kurt cast one last glance over the assembled X-men, then turned and trailed after the Brotherhood on all fours, since he was too tired from teleporting to walk upright.

A moment later, he caught up to the Brotherhood and crawled up on Fred's shoulder. The big guy gave him a smile and raised a hand to scratch behind Kurt's ears. Despite himself, Kurt smiled and leaned into the touch.

"Glad to have you back, little guy," Freddy rumbled.

"'Ey! I'm s'posed to be yer 'little buddy,'" Todd whined.

"Yer both my 'little buddies,'" Fred said with an absent shrug, which upset Kurt's seat on his shoulder. He moved to slip into the duffel bag, riding it like a swing.

Todd stuck the tip of his green tongue out at Kurt, but the sight of his crooked smile put any of Kurt's concerns at ease.

Nestled in a bag in the bend of Freddy's elbow looking at the crooked yellow smile of a crooked boy, Kurt had never felt safer, nor more free.

Finally, he was home again.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It was a grim team that walked through the doors of the Xavier Institute that afternoon. Professor Charles Xavier pressed his palms together as he watched them return home from his office window.

He was not at all surprised when Scott stormed into the office a couple minutes later. Jean, Logan, and Ororo trailed behind him, the latter two finding places to stand out of the way of Scott's pacing.

"I take it the mission did not go as well as hoped?"

"Not at all," Scott said tightly.

"Did you find the boy?" Charles asked, even though everyone knew he was already aware of the answer. It was polite to ask, and Scott always handled himself better when able to give his reports.

"We found him. Or actually, _he_ found _us_, then promptly stole my visor and scared the life out of Kitty. He's a nasty one, Professor."

"Hmm." Charles glanced at Jean, who had seated herself on one of the chairs in front of his desk while Scott paced.

_-Are these your impressions, Jean?-_

_-No, Professor. He's confused, I think. And hurt, in a lot of ways. But I don't think he's a bad person.-_

"He is a mutant, like you expected," Scott continued, unaware of his exchange with Jean. "A teleporter. The Brotherhood called him 'Nightcrawler'. He seemed to fit in with them just fine."

"I see. Why don't you start from the beginning, Scott?"

And so Scott did, starting with the team's attempt to track the Brotherhood and ending with the arrival of Ororo and Logan.

"The kids trashed the place pretty thoroughly," Logan put in, his glare pointedly on Scott. "We're going to have a doozy of a time covering this one up, Chuck."

"Don't worry about it, Logan," Charles assured his friend. "I will have it taken care of. Our primary focus should be with the boy concerned."

"With all due respect, Professor," Scott asked, "what are you talking about? He's joined the Brotherhood. Game over; better luck next time."

"Scooter's right, Chuck," Logan said. "I heard what those boys were saying as they left… they seemed pretty chummy. Now, I like puttin' those boys in their place as much as the next guy, but keeping after Nightcrawler is just askin' for an unnecessary fight."

Ororo added, "You certainly didn't fight this hard for any of the other Brotherhood boys. What is so special about this one?" Always more observant than she seemed, was Ororo.

Charles laced his fingers together and regarded his dearest friends sadly. "I'm afraid that, this time, it's not as simple as merely letting the Brotherhood go about business as usual. As unfortunate as it is, Kurt's appearance will be a complex problem that the Brotherhood is simply not equipped to address."

"Kurt?" asked Jean.

Charles closed his eyes. "Kurt Wagner. Age sixteen. Picked up by a circus at age seven, from somewhere in southern Germany." He opened his eyes. "I took the liberty of tracking his origins while you were away." He did not think it wise to reveal the other, more personal things he had uncovered in his digging.

The four of them sat in silence to digest that.

"So what you gonna do about him, Chuck?"

"I… am not sure." It was rare that he was without a plan, but he really was not sure how to proceed in this case. "If we approach him too strongly, we will spook him off. And yet, if things are as you described, Scott, I fear the Brotherhood has already captured the young man's heart. If we leave it alone, things are bound to escalate as he discovers the hefty limitations of his new-found freedom."

This left the four of them in a solemn mood.

Finally, Logan sighed. "Well, I better make sure the new mutants haven't blown up the hangar or somethin' while we were away. Talk to you later, Chuck."

Logan walked out. Ororo took this as her cue, and bowed out gracefully after him.

This left an agitated Scott and a discouraged Jean sitting in front of him.

"Go ahead, Jean," Charles prodded.

Jean let her head drop. "I'd really hoped to reach this one, Professor. I could feel… he's gentle. And loyal. But…"

Charles nodded in understanding, "…that very loyalty could very well work against us."

"What are you talking about?" Scott asked. "Gentle? Jean, he _attacked _me."

"The way he saw it," she responded, "he was defending the ones who had saved him from captivity."

Scott jerked to stare at her, his usually stoic face showing surprise. "The Brotherhood? Are you sure he's from the same dimension, because last time I checked, the Brotherhood didn't do 'saving'."

Jean hid an eye roll and sighed. "I know, Scott. I'm just relaying the impression I got from _him_." Scott sat back, mollified, but then Jean turned a look on him and continued: "And just because you don't like them doesn't mean they're not capable of some good."

"What are you talking about, Jean? They _destroyed_ an _elevator_ today."

"Scott, we destroyed the entire _mall_."

"…that was different."

"I think we're done here." Jean stood up, giving the professor a weary smile. "Thank you for your time, Professor." -_I really am sorry about the destruction. Things got carried away.-_

_-Don't worry about it. A fix is already in motion. Just… do your best not to make it a habit.- _"You know my doors are always open, Jean. Have a good rest of the day, Scott."

Scott stood up somewhat dejectedly, but nonetheless followed Jean on her way out.

"Oh," Charles added as they reached the door, "and would you kindly send Rogue in? She has been awaiting her turn quite patiently."

Scott took a moment to catch on, but Jean sent him a small smile. "Of course, Professor."

Both teens left. A moment later, another teen poked her head in, looking bashful over being caught eavesdropping.

"Come on in, Rogue."

Rogue made her way in carefully and shut the door firmly behind her, as if coming to him was something embarrassing that she didn't want to be caught doing.

"Take a seat and tell me what's on your mind."

"Yeah, like ya don't know," she mumbled, but sat anyway.

He waited patiently for a couple minutes while she collected her thoughts… he could hear the gears turning in her head.

"Okay," she said at last, looking at her hands. "Here's the thing. Y'all remember those nightmares I told yeh 'bout?"

"The ones about being chased? Of course."

"Well, 'member how I said I recognized Mystique, but not the baby?"

"Yes, I remember."

She took a steadying breath. "Well, I think I recognize 'im now."

Charles paused, surprised. "Go on."

At last, Rogue met his eyes, her brows furrowed together. "It was Nightcrawler."

Charles felt himself go cold, but took great care not to show his concern. "Are you certain?"

"Yeh. Y'all don't see a face like that an' forget it, y'know?"

"No, no… of course not." Charles rubbed his hands together in front of him, his mind moving a mile a minute. Rogue did not understand the source of her dream, but Charles had his strong suspicions. And if it was true, and Rogue had correctly identified both people in the dream, then things were a great deal more volatile than he could have imagined.

"Professor… what does it mean?" she asked, an innocent question from a child who did not know the secrets she carried.

"I don't know, Rogue," answered a very troubled man who knew more than any man ever should. "And I fear that uncertainty could be our undoing."

**End Episode 1**


	6. Disappearing Act, part 1

_(Author's Notes: __Just an update in warnings before you dive into the next episode. Remember, this is going to be slash. Also, there is some triggery content later on that I'm not sure I warned about previously. So turn back now, if you must!)_

**Episode 2: Disappearing Act**

"Check it out, yo!" Todd bounded in, letting the front door slam open. He held his prize high in one over-sized fist.

Lance glared at him from the kitchen and made a shushing motion. The phone receiver was pressed tight to his ear. Ah, no wonder. Any interruption of a Kitty-Cat Call usually got that look.

Todd turned right and headed into the TV room instead. Tabby had stretched herself across the couch, and was flipping through the TV channels and popping gum. Pietro and Fred were in the armchair and on the floor (respectively), playing cards with the bored idleness that only boys wasting time after school could. All three looked up as Todd entered.

"Yo, check it out!" He waved his fist, showing them the bills and favoring them all with a shit-eating grin. "I got enough to feed both Freddy and Fuzzy!"

Tabby's eyes widened, and her gum bubble deflated. Then, she burst into motion, jumping off the couch and yanking the money out of his fist.

"'Ey!"

"Whoa!" Her jaw dropped as she sorted through the bills. "There's gotta be two grand in here."

_Fwip. _Pietro peered over her shoulder. "How'd-you-get-that-much-money-Toad?"

Todd smiled smugly. "S'like I said, dawg. Me an' the ATM on fifth… we gots what you call a mutual understandin'."

Pietro nodded, but Tabby's eyebrows shot up. "You hacked an ATM machine? Since when can _you _do stuff like that?"

Pietro shrugged, still hovering at her shoulder. "He-does-stuff-like-that-sometimes. It-pays-the-bills-so-it's-best-not-to-question-it."

Todd just grinned cheekily (almost proudly!) and made to take the bills back, but Tabby held them out of range, shoving him away with a hand to his forehead.

"Aw, man! Give 'em back!"

"No way. Who knows what you boys would do with this money?"

"I'll-hold-onto-it-then." Before she could protest, Pietro had snatched the money out of her hand and zipped to the other side of the room.

"No way!" Tabby cried. "You're as bad as he is!"

"I'll hold it," Freddy offered from the floor.

"I-am-the-most-reliable-member-here. Therefore-I-will-be-entrusted-with-it."

"You ain't reliable, foo."

"_None _of you dunderheads are," a new voice spoke, and Lance appeared from nowhere—phone still firmly attached to his ear—and plucked the bills from Pietro's hand. "_I'm_ taking this, and using it to actually pay for stuff we need."

"Aw…" Todd bounced over to Lance and gave him his best puppy-eyed expression. "Ya sure we can't spare jus' a _lil-_"

"_No_, Toad. We're not getting you an mp3 player."

Todd sat on one end of the couch. "I wasn't gonna—"

"No bike. No computer. No hot tub. Fuck no on the car, the cell phone, the flatscreen." Todd felt himself sinking dejectedly into the couch. "No game consoles, vehicles, or electronics of any kind. Just no. Got it?"

Todd mumbled into his own shirt. "Yeh. I got it."

"Okay." Lance pocketed the money and gave them all one last look, then returned his attention to the receiver and headed back toward the kitchen. "Sorry about that, Pretty Kitty. Toad was being usual self, but I'm back now."

Todd stuck his green tongue out at Lance's back as the boy disappeared through the doorway. Tabby settled onto the couch beside him and returned to flipping through the TV channels.

In the relative quiet, Todd became aware of a soft scratching sound behind him. Dejection making way for curiosity, he peeked over his shoulder and saw Kurt. The furball was hanging upside-down by his tail from the picture window's curtain rod (the curtain had disappeared weeks ago), scribbling frantically into a writing pad that was raised (lowered?) to obscure his face.

Todd blinked. "Yo, what's Fuzzy doin'?"

Pietro had flopped back into the armchair. He slapped a hand over his forehead and groaned, "Don't-even-ask."

"I am observing," the German said, not even pausing in his writing.

Todd turned to face more toward Kurt. "Huh?"

The pen stopped moving, and the writing pad lowered to reveal a pair of mischievous yellow eyes. "I am observing teens in zheir natural environment enacting social situations, so as to better understand zhem."

At Todd's look, Pietro explained, "Apparently-he-got-stuck-watching-Animal-Planet-for-three-hours-before-he-figured-out-how-to-use-the-remote."

"Ja. Now hush. I am taking notes for later study." The eyes disappeared, and Todd just turned back to sit forward again with a baffled expression.

Tabby, however, turned to glance back at him. "Hey, I didn't know you could write."

"Yeah, that's right." Todd turned back around too. Then, both Tabby and Todd hopped over the back of the couch and moved to peek at Kurt's notes. They each took a spot on either side of the upside-down boy and looked at what he'd been writing. As one, they tilted their heads to the side.

"Not vell," Kurt admitted bashfully. "Und not in English."

"I'll say," said Tabby. Todd was too busy trying to wrap his mind around some of the words on the paper. Kurt made a squawking noise as Tabby snatched the pad out of his grip and tossed it carelessly across the room. "Forget that and let's just watch the tube."

"Zhe tube?"

"_TV_, Blue."

"Oh." He thought about it for a moment. "I did zhat all day vhile you vere at school."

"But you didn't watch it with _us_. Come chill with us, and we'll show you what 'enacting social situations' is all about."

"Ja, okay."

Kurt dropped to the ground, and the three of them returned to the couch. Tabby kicked up her legs and splayed them across Todd's lap. Kurt, meanwhile, seemed perfectly content to perch on the back of the couch.

Fred had grabbed the remote while they were distracted, and had changed the channel to the Food Network. Even when Todd's tongue snapped out to snatch it, Freddy didn't relinquish the remote, which left the rest of them suffering through some chubby guy in an apron tossing a skillet around. Tabby started making faces at the TV host, making both boys stifle snickers, which in turn earned them annoyed looks from Pietro.

It was Monday afternoon, three days after Tabitha and Kurt had joined the Brotherhood (one with their permission and the other not), and, already, it felt like they had been there all along.

Tabitha's easy, fun-loving take on life kept things exciting and fun, which made her a perfect foil for Lance when he was in his tough-guy leader mode. Plus, it wasn't like any of the boys was going to complain about having a hot chick around, no matter how psycho she was.

Kurt was completely the opposite. He was quiet most of the time, but he was energetic, inquisitive, and there were times Todd could see hints of mischief in his smile. Kurt had been sleeping in Todd's room (Lance: "You adopted him, so you get to deal with him.") on a pile of spare blankets on the floor, and the boy tended to wake Todd up at all hours to ask silly questions. Like "Where does our water come from?" and "What is that box on a pole in front of the house for?"

Sometimes, Todd and Kurt got along so easily that Todd forgot how new to everything Kurt was. Then, Kurt asked a question about the function of a toothbrush or something, and it all came crashing back.

Case in point:

"Vhat are zhose things he's putting in zhe food?"

"Who cares, yo?"

"Apricots," said Fred, not taking his eyes from the screen. "He's makin' apricot crostata. It's an Italian dessert."

"Oh." Kurt's head tilted curiously. "Is it good?"

"Yeah. It's great in summer, 'specially if the fruit ain't too tart."

They fell quiet again, watching the chubby man make his dessert.

After about half an hour watching the Food Network, Lance reappeared, twirling his keys around his finger and conspicuously lacking the phone. "All right, losers. I'm going out for groceries. What do we need?"

"I got a list of ingredients," Fred said, finally looking away from the TV.

"Forget it, Blob. I'm getting the basics; nothing fancy."

"Toad-needs-an-assload-of-soap. Preferably-perfumed."

"'Ey! Ya tryin' to kill me, foo?"

"You're gonna get flour an' eggs an' stuff at least, right?" Fred pressed.

"Sure, big guy," Lance said with an eyeroll.

"I zhink I need a brush or somezhing. My fur's been shedding everyvhere."

"I'll-say. I-feel-like-I'm-sitting-in-a-blue-haystack-here."

"Okay." Lance motioned them to silence and counted items off on his fingers. "We'll try a different brand of soap for Toad. Grooming stuff for the furball…"

Todd sank into the couch cushion, pouting and grumbling. He hated cheap grocery store soaps… they always did funny things to his skin. Usually painful or itchy things. But if he didn't use _something_, Pietro and Lance took matters into their own hands. Which was much worse.

Tabitha popped her gum. "Oh, I think I need tampons."

As one, all the boys cringed at the dreaded word (all except Kurt, who probably didn't know what it meant).

"Oh hell no," Lance said, waving his hands in front of him.

"That's nasty," Todd added helpfully, still pouting.

"Vhat are 'tampons'?" Kurt asked, looking worried by the others' reactions.

"I-believe-the-term-is-'feminine-hygiene-products'," said Pietro with a shudder, adding air quotes for effect. Kurt just seemed to look more confused.

"Fine, you babies," Tabby said with an eye roll. "But I'm not doing laundry, then."

It took a minute for her meaning to sink in.

"EWWW!" Todd shrieked.

"Yuck-yuck-yuck-yuck-yuck…"

"Fine!" Lance said. "I'll pick up… those things. Just stop talking about it!"

Tabby sat back, smiling victoriously. Kurt continued to look around in confusion.

"All right." Lance rubbed his eyes. "So, soap for Toad. Brushes for Fuzzbutt. …stuff… for Tabby. Are we good on shampoos and stuff?"

"Oh yeah," Tabby said, snapping her fingers. "I think I might have used the last of the shampoo. Girl's gotta get her hair just right, after all."

"No, ve have more," Kurt piped up. "Pietro's got some special vuns in his room."

That made everyone glance over at the speedster, whose face had gone suspiciously red. "I-I-I-most-certainly-do-not! WhywouldIhaveshampooinmyroomI'mnotagirl."

He'd dropped the spaces between his words entirely. Oh yeah, he was guilty.

"You know," Fred said slowly, "I always wondered how he got his hair so sleek an' shiny."

"Ooh, you have the expensive stuff, don't you?" Tabby pressed. "I'm totally gonna borrow it."

"Idonothave-expensiveshampoos-inmyroom!" Pietro squeaked unintelligibly. "Andwhattheheck-wasthefurballdoing-inmyroom-anywayhuh?"

It took a second for everyone to figure out what Pietro had just said, but then Kurt's brows furrowed in trepidation. "Vas zhat not okay?"

"OFCOURSEITSNOTOKAY!"

Kurt flinched, as if he expected Pietro to hit him.

"Hold up," Lance said, motioning for a calm that wasn't going to happen. "Furball, you went into Pietro's room?"

"Ja…" Kurt seemed to curl in on himself as he took in everyone's expressions. "You vere all at school, und I vas bored. So I explored."

"'Took a look around' explored? Or 'dug through the dresser and crawled under the bed' explored?"

"…the second vun?"

Lance's jaw set… a sure sign of an oncoming quake. "Did you do this in other rooms?"

"…ja."

"_Every _room?"

"…ja…"

"_My_ room?"

The house shook around them briefly… but not as hard as Kurt had started to shake. Todd could feel his trembling through the couch cushion.

Everyone was frowning or glaring at the blue furball.

"What-the-hell?" Pietro spat, intelligible again. "Are-you-a-spy-or-something?"

Fred frowned. "I don' like other people going through my stuff."

"You better not have gotten into my panty drawer or something," Tabby said.

Todd stayed quiet.

After getting control of his temper, Lance stalked toward the cowering mutant. "Don't ever touch my fucking stuff again, you—"

Kurt winced and cowered away as Lance reached him, closing his eyes and bowing his head submissively. Lance cut himself off. All of them had seen enough hardship to recognize that posture: he expected to be hit… and accepted it.

Lance's hands curled into angry fists, but he made no more moves toward Kurt. Finally, he sputtered, "Damn it, get out of here!"

Kurt didn't need to be told twice. He disappeared with a _bamf _and a puff of brimstone-scented smoke.

Lacking a legitimate target, the room was left with tension. Todd, who had been conspicuously silent through the entire thing, quietly slipped away before everything exploded (possibly literally, with Boom Boom involved).

Todd made his way up the stairs and to his room. He poked his head in, and didn't see anyone inside. But the shades were drawn, casting everything into shadow. After quietly shutting the door behind him, he walked over to his bed and lowered himself to the floor, peering into the darkness under it.

There. A soft sheen of fur from what little afternoon sunlight could get into the room.

"You okay, Fuzzy?"

The shadows shifted, and a pair of watery yellow eyes peered out at him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Yeh, I figured. Ya wanna come out, or should I jus' give ya yer blankets now?"

Kurt didn't answer right away, and for a moment Todd wondered if he really would spend the rest of the night hiding under the bed. But then, the shadows moved again, and Kurt started to crawl out. Todd stood up and moved aside to give him room.

As Kurt pulled himself up, he crouched low on the floor and glanced up at Todd uncertainly. "Is everyvun very angry vith me?"

Todd bounced onto his bed, letting himself stretch out. "Nah, I wouldn't worry about it. Pietro'll complain fer a while, and Lance might be pissed for a bit, but they'll both get over it. You just gotta let 'em work it off, dawg. An' I never knew Freddy to hold a grudge, ever."

Kurt crawled hesitantly onto the end of the bed and started tugging at the sheets. "I did not know I vasn't allowed in zhem. I zhought ve could use zhe whole house."

"Yeh, well, bedrooms are kinda special, y'know?" Todd played with his toes, trying to think of a way to explain it. "Everyone gots to have a private place, yo. Somewhere they feel safe in, where _they_ gots all the control. That's what bedrooms're for."

"Oh. So vhen I vent into zheir rooms, I vas breaking into zheir sanctu-varies?"

"Yeh, ya could put it like that."

Kurt tugged at the sheets, his eyes lowered. "So vhat about vhen I use your room? I'm invading your private place, aren't I?"

Todd took a moment to think that over, then shrugged. "I guess, but I don't mind, foo'." Kurt's eyes looked up at him hesitantly. "Really, foo'. I'm like you… I ain't got a need fer as much space as everyone else. I'm just happy to have a space at all, yo."

Kurt nodded. "I've never really had a sanctu-vary."

"Ya can use mine, Fuzzy."

A tentative, broken smile showed through, and Todd caught a flash of a pointed fang. "You mean zhat?"

"'Course."

Kurt grinned more fully, bouncing on the bed experimentally. Todd bounced back, and they were suddenly back to messing around and getting along like they'd been best friends for years.

At times like that, it was easy to forget how broken Kurt was. Then again, Todd was broken too. It was all about gluing the pieces together, then finding a way to hide all the cracks.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurt didn't dare emerge from his and Todd's bedroom until the next morning.

When he did emerge, it was because there was a scent wafting up through the house that he couldn't describe.

He rolled off his makeshift bed and crept out of the room, careful not to wake Todd. He continued down the stairs and into the kitchen. There, he found Fred lumbering around the kitchen, tending to something sizzling on the stove.

"Mmm…" He said before he thought about it, moving to peer into the skillet. "Das riecht vunderbar. Vhat is zhat?"

"Cheese and bacon omelets. My own recipe." Fred frowned. "Hey, could you get off the counter?"

Kurt blinked and obediently scuttled off the counter. He wilted as he mumbled, "Sorry."

"No big deal. I just don't want little blue hairs in all the food if I can help it." Fred shook the skillet a bit, flipping the omelet over. Then, he started breaking eggs into a little bowl. "You wanna taste?"

"You're not angry vith me?"

Fred wrinkled his nose in confusion. "Why'd I be mad? You didn't do nothin'."

Kurt hesitantly moved to stand next to Freddy, watching him poke at strips of bacon in a pan. He was steadily getting better at standing on his hind legs, but nonetheless was happy to lean on the counter for support. "I vent into your room."

"That was yesterday," he said simply, and that was that.

Kurt watched Freddy cook for a while, fascinated. He'd seen food vendors cook at the carnival, but never anything as complicated as the breakfast Fred was preparing. Fred obviously took pride in his meals.

"So zhings like zhis… is zhis zhe sort of zhing you learn at school?"

"This?" Fred paused thoughtfully over his grated cheese. "Nuh-uh. School's no good for learning to cook."

"Oh." Kurt's tail twitched as he watched Fred move back to the stove, flipping the omelet again. "Vell, vhat sorts of zhings _do _you learn at school?"

"Ah, gee. I dunno. Math and writin', an' stuff."

Kurt's head tilted to one side.

Lance walked in, mid-yawn, then blinked owlishly at the messy countertops. "I thought I smelled a Fred meal."

"Hey Lance," said Fred. "Kurt's wonderin' about school."

"Yeah?" Lance moved to the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice. He tore it open as he turned toward Kurt. "Like what?"

"Vell, I vas vondering vhat sorts of zhings you learn zhere."

Lance snorted a laughed and took a swig from the carton. "Nothing useful, I can tell you that."

"Oh."

Freddy added, "I mentioned math an' writin' an' stuff."

"Well, yeah. I guess you _can _learn that stuff." Lance paused thoughtfully. "Don't really see the point. The main thing I think Fuzzy's been missing is the whole social aspect."

"Social aspect?" Kurt echoed.

"Yeah. Like how to deal with people. Which chicks are the easiest versus the best to pick up. Whether or not digging through someone's room is okay."

Lance stared at him for a moment, and Kurt shrank back. "I'm sorry!" he blurted. "I'm very, very sorry. I didn't know vhat I vas doing."

"Yeah, I figured. Just… don't do it again, all right?"

Kurt nodded vehemently.

Lance took another swig of juice. "So you've seriously never been to school before?"

"I've had trainers… do zhey count?"

"Uh…. no."

Freddy flipped the omelet off the skillet and onto a plate.

_Whoosh._

It disappeared in a silver blur.

"Hey!" Fred shouted after him. "First come first serve, Pietro!"

"Whoever-came-first-should-have-moved-faster!" the speedster returned from somewhere in the house.

Fred shrugged and poured some eggs into the skillet.

Lance grabbed a piece of bacon off the sizzling pan while he waited. "You're lucky, fuzzball. We've _got_ to go to school, whether we like it or not. Trust me: you're better off."

"But it's so boring here during zhe day."

"Kurt, you've spent most of your life in a cage. _Now_ you're bored?"

Kurt flashed a lopsided grin. "Ja, I vas bored zhen, too."

Lance just shook his head and took another swig of juice.

o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurt soon found that, when it came to personal transgressions like invasion of privacy, the Brotherhood was surprisingly willing to forgive and forget in favor of more current issues. In fact, when Tabby caught Fred and Todd gawking at the PJ pants and lacy black negligee that she used as a nightie, all thoughts of Kurt's mistakes disappeared in the chaos, borne away by the sounds of explosions, shrieking, and Tabitha's amused laughter.

In fact, the Brotherhood transgressed against one another regularly, if the verbal abuse Lance levied around was any indication. Pietro's arrogance was overlooked, as was Fred's occasional bouts of uncontrollable temper. And Todd always shrugged off the others' casual abuse of him with a yellow-toothed smile.

And Kurt could kind of see why. When all things were said and done, the Brotherhood was still in it together, 'us against the world.' Each boy (and girl) had his (and her) issues, cracks in their tough rough-and-tumble exteriors that they didn't want anyone who might judge them to see. But the Brotherhood boarding house was a judge-free zone. Let your issues show, and you might get heckled for it, but at least it would be from someone who is just as messed up as you. It was a curious sort of bonding, one Kurt doubted most children experienced, but one into which Kurt fit perfectly.

Even so, his curiosity was a constant tug against his common sense, begging him to leave the safety of the boarding house and explore the world that had opened up before him. He knew first-hand what kind of greeting he would get if anyone but the Brotherhood saw him… but that did little to stop the yearning. The boarding house got small very quickly, and soon it began to feel like a bigger cage. Worse, the leash that was holding him back was his own appearance—something he could never do anything about.

The yearning was the worst when the others were at school, and his longing was accompanied by the ache of loneliness and the restlessness of boredom. He was active by nature—he'd always known that—and being cooped up in a house that he could barely run through without breaking a sweat was another hand rubbing his fur the wrong way. He was supposed to be free… so why was he having the same problems he'd had when he was caged?

He never told the others about his restlessness, but he suspected they could tell anyway. Every time he rushed to greet them when they got home from school, he could tell by the looks on their faces that there was something unusual in his manner. Pietro had once commented that it was "like-a-dog", but Kurt wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that.

That was another thing that bothered him. He was deplorably socially stunted, and knew it. He was learning—the rest of the Brotherhood was always quick to point out when he was doing something strange—but even the Brotherhood couldn't teach him everything. They were just as abnormal as he was, only in different ways.

What he needed was to see _normal_ teenagers in _normal_ situations. And if daytime TV had shown him anything, then the place to do that was at school.

Thus, after over a week of being cooped up in the boarding house, Kurt decided to follow the others to Bayville high school.


	7. Disappearing Act, part 2

Following the others to school was a great deal easier than Kurt thought it would be—all he had to do was teleport into the back of Lance's jeep and wait silently while everyone piled in. By staying low and silent, he remained unnoticed, and was thus able to poke his head out once everyone was inside the large, boxy building he assumed to be the school.

He spotted a semi-hidden spot on the roof of the structure and teleported over, then stayed low so no passersby would see him scurrying around up there. The question was how to get inside without getting caught… he should probably avoid windows, and doors were out of the question…

He felt a draft of air from below him and looked down. A grating! Carrying the scents of chalk, french fries, old sweat, and lots of people. He'd spent enough of his life around carnival creations to understand the need for ventilation. Which meant that this would lead all the way to where the people were.

Kurt tried to detach the grating, but it was screwed on. With a shrug, he checked to make sure there were no obstructions, then teleported into the vent.

He landed inside a steeply angled metal tunnel, which was surprisingly slippery. He slid several yards before he snapped his arms and legs out, bracing himself against the squared sides of the shaft. Then, he carefully lowered himself, allowing himself to slip a couple feet at a time. Eventually, he hit the bottom, where it leveled out. A couple feet ahead, it forked off in three directions. One had the old sweat scent, while the others had the people. Kurt decided to take one of the latter forks.

He continued like that for several minutes, winding his way through a maze of metal tunnels. Then, he whiffed fresh air a moment before he came across his first grating.

Through the thin metal slits, he could see a hallway lined with lockers. An adult in thick glasses wound his way slowly through them, as if looking for stragglers. Kurt peered closer through the vent to take in the dapper suit and the balding patch on the top of his head.

The man stopped right under the vent, and Kurt held his breath. Had he made a noise? Had his tail banged against the vent or something? The man looked around carefully.

Then:

"Principle Kelly!"

The man turned. "Yes, Kendra?"

A woman dressed in a blue blouse and gray skirt came into view, a stack of papers in her hands. "I've got the files you were searching for, sir. This Institute seems legitimate."

"Hmm. Give them to me, and I'll see about that."

The papers traded hands, and both people walked off. Kurt breathed a sigh of relief.

He continued on through the tunnels, until he came upon the next grating. This time, he looked into a classroom, where a middle-aged woman stood at the front while teenagers listened in various stages of wakefulness.

"…which of course means that the fairies represent the dreaming state of _Midsummer Night's Dream_. Collin, what, then, is Puck doing in his last monologue, if this metaphor is true?"

A blond boy raised his head from his desk and blinked owlishly. "Um, he's waking us up?"

"Ah, yes, but if he is part of the dream, how can he wake us?"

Kurt didn't understand, so he moved on.

It went on like that. Some gratings showed only empty rooms or hallways, but others offered him windows into a different world. He listened, fascinated, as one man read from a scary poem about a raven. He watched jealously as students chased one another around a hardwood floor, bouncing a ball in some sort of game Kurt didn't completely understand. He laughed and cried as he overheard various conversations about who was dating who, what had happened at last week's party, and which musical artist was currently the 'hottest,' with apparently several meanings for that word.

He caught glimpses of both the Brotherhood and the X-men during the day, but they rarely interacted with one another. He overheard Lance trying to flirt with 'Kitty,' which the girl swiftly brushed off, showing signs of anger. He also spotted spike-boy ('Evan') darting away from the adults with a guilty look on his face, the red-head ('Jean') explaining offensive techniques in soccer to a gaggle of hangers-on, and Tabby blowing a vending machine open.

He did, however, discover one particular difficulty while trying to sneak around through the vents: hollow metal was loud. Several times, he tried to travel over a quiet classroom, only to peek inside through a grating and notice heads turned quizzically upward. At the least, it must have sounded like there were rats or some other sort of rodent sneaking around… at worst, it sounded like someone was banging a metal drum repeatedly.

So, when traveling over stretches of vent, Kurt started teleporting. A soft _bamf _was a lot less distracting than obvious footsteps, and therefore was less likely to get him caught.

There was one thing he wasn't counting on, though, and that was for someone to actually catch a hint of brimstone on the air. He wouldn't have thought any human to have senses that strong… but near noon, he was proven wrong.

He had been sitting over a particular classroom for a while, watching a solidly-built man with glasses talk about atoms and molecules… in a way that even Kurt could understand. The man's voice was compassionate and calming, and he answered every question with infinite patience and good nature. Kurt found himself actually learning, and settled in for a long sit.

To his disappointment, after fifteen minutes of watching the teacher, the bell rang. Kurt had learned to recognize it as something that signaled the end and beginning of each class period, much like a canon or bell at the carnival signalled the beginning of events.

"Well, I guess that's all we have time for today," said the teacher. "We'll pick up with the noble gases tomorrow." He started stacking his papers, before finishing with a good-natured smile. "And please, do use up all your 'noble gas' jokes _before_ then. I'd like to actually get something done."

Various students chuckled as everyone packed up and headed out the door. It was only after most of them were gone that the teacher began frowning thoughtfully and checking over the equipment around the lab.

"Something wrong, Mr. McCoy?" asked a familiar voice, and for the first time, Kurt realized that one of the X-men had been in the class the entire time.

"Nothing much, Evan. I just thought I caught an odd scent during class. As a chemistry teacher, it pays to be vigilant about out-of-place odors."

"You mean all those stink bombs didn't completely kill your sense of smell?" Spike-boy joked, stuffing the last of his things in his bag.

Mr. McCoy smiled at him. "No, I'm afraid not, although your class certainly did try." He ended his search and headed back to the front. "By the way, Evan, that essay you turned in last week about the chemical composition of calcium was most intriguing. You really have a talent for exploring the practical amongst the theoretical."

The boy laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, I have no idea what you just said… but I have kind of a special interest in calcium, y'know? It's important in my everyday life.

"Oh, no doubt. It and most other vitamins and minerals all join together to form the intricacies of the human body. It's quite fascinating, really."

"If you say so, Mr. McCoy." Evan smiled fondly at the teacher, and Kurt could understand why. Kurt wished he had a relationship with an adult like that.

Mr. McCoy returned the smile. "Well, you'd better be off. I can't have you missing lunch on my account."

"You sure you don't need help with the funny smell? I've got a wicked sharp nose."

"Oh, no need to worry. I'm sure I simply imagined it." He turned to his desk, packing his papers into a manila folder. "After all, I can hardly imagine a source of brimstone in a high school."

Evan nodded and started away, then whirled and did a double-take. "Did you say 'brimstone?'"

_Scheisse._

Mr. McCoy looked up curiously. "Indeed I did. Does that mean anything to you, perchance?"

"N-no! No! Um, I gotta go. Later, Mr. McCoy!" Evan sped out the door, leaving Mr. McCoy looking after him, perplexed.

Kurt, for his part, felt fear run through him for the first time in a week. He'd almost forgotten what constant terror felt like, but it all came rushing back in that instant.

Not wanting to set off that scent of brimstone again, he scurried away, no doubt making an awful racket. It didn't really matter: an X-man knew he was here, and would no doubt tell the other X-men. And then they'd hunt him down, and hurt him.

Once Kurt was sufficiently far from the teacher with the oddly-sharp nose, he finally started porting… albeit slightly hysterically.

He ported back through the vents that he'd already been through. After that, he started porting through unfamiliar shafts that had a strong scent of grease and fish, much like carnival food.

Then, he ported on top of a grating that wasn't attached properly, and it gave way under his weight, sending him falling with a crash into the room below.

He was in a room surrounded by what he recognized as industrial cooking equipment: ovens and freezers and sinks and counters all over the place.

However, cooking equipment meant cooks. Kurt scurried toward the nearest shelter behind a counter, even as running footsteps approached, drawn by the noise.

"Oh my god, what was that?"

"It looked like some sort of giant rat!"

"Shit! Catch it, before it gets loose and the health inspector finds out!"

Cue a half dozen people armed with pans and rolling pins trying to come after him. He scurried from hiding spot to hiding spot (_under the sink, behind the fridge, between the tray racks, under, around, behind…_), never allowing them more than a glimpse of dark fur or a long tail. He could hear the sounds of many young voices through one door, and knew he couldn't afford to exit that way. He'd be seen by them for sure.

Then again, he couldn't exactly dodge these cooks forever.

He couldn't see any direct exit other than through the hundreds of kids… no, wait! There was a service door off to one side, with a big red "Exit" sign above it. But he couldn't go through it without entering a well-lit area where one cook stood, ready to cut him off. But the others were getting increasingly close… one thrown pudding cup splattered all over him.

So, he did something that he knew was stupid, but could see no other option. He ported… _blind_.

He closed his eyes, had that brief tugging feeling, and when he opened them, he was on the other side of the door. Luckily for him, he hadn't appeared in the middle of a car or something, but instead was at the side of the school, near a dumpster. On the plus side: he was away from the kitchen. On the minus: he was out in the open.

He heard shouts coming from inside, and backed away from the service door. How long until someone poked their head outside? He needed to be gone by then… but where? Hiding inside a car would only be a temporary solution… he needed to get _away_. But the only safe place he knew was the boarding house… and he wasn't entirely sure how to get there without a jeep to hide in.

"Fuzzy?"

Kurt whirled on that wonderful, familiar voice. There, standing on the edge of a parking lot, picking a box elder bug out of his teeth, was Todd.

"You nuts, foo'? What're you doin' here?"

Kurt didn't answer, but instead cast a worried glance back at the kitchen door. "I zhink I'm kind of busted…"

"I'll say. Lance is gonna _maim _you for leavin' the house, yo."

"Ja, ja, ve can talk about it later!" Kurt heard something hit the door and automatically darted around the corner of the school. Todd gave a funny yelp and hopped after.

Both hunkered out of sight and peered around the corner as the service door burst open, and five cooks poured out.

"Maybe it got out!" one cried.

"Dammit, we have to catch it!" said another. "We don't need anyone hearing about this!"

The cooks split up in different directions, bearing their utensils like weapons.

Todd and Kurt spun and sped away along the wall of the school.

"Damn, dawg… what'd you _do_?"

"Apparently, I vas born looking like a giant rat."

"Aw, that sucks."

"No kidding."

They sped away, reaching something that looked like a storm cellar, complete with a staircase that led down into the building. They flitted down inside to find an old storage room. There, they found a stack of boxes to hide behind and caught their breath.

"See now…" Todd said between pants. "_This_ is why we don't let ya leave the house, Fuzzbutt."

"I know…" Kurt sighed dejectedly, wilting. "I just vanted to see vhat it vas like, zhat vas all."

"You wanted to see _school_? Why?" Todd looked at him like he was insane. "Foo', I'd _kill_ to get to lay around the house all day. Well okay… not kill. But I'd probably let someone die. If, y'know, they was already gonna die."

Kurt let out a weak laugh at the morbid joke.

And then, footsteps started down the stairs above their hiding place, and they froze.

Todd's head whipped around. "There!"

'There' was a door (furnished with a big 'keep out' sign) on the other side of the storage room. Both boys ran over and tried to open it, but it was locked and stuck.

"Aw man… If you get busted, _I _get busted. An' I'm pretty sure we ain't s'posed to be down here."

Kurt looked behind them. A pair of silhouettes were in the doorway, coming in. No time to think.

He'd never tried teleporting someone with him before… no better time to try.

Kurt veritably tackled Todd, wrapping his arms and tail around the skinny boy's torso (and eliciting a yelp from the pale boy in the process). Then, he concentrated. For a moment, he felt resistance, and feared it wouldn't work. Then…

_Bamf_.

They reappeared on the other side of the door, and stumbled apart. Todd caught himself against the wall, groaning and clutching his stomach, while Kurt dropped to the floor and swayed dizzily, fighting vertigo.

"Jeez, Fuzzy… that's one nasty ride. I don' think I wanna go again."

"It's not usually zhat bad." Kurt picked himself up as his energy and balance returned. "I probably just need to get used to passengers."

"Well, ya ain't practicin' on me, yo."

Kurt smiled impishly at his friend. "Ve'll just see if you can stop me."

Todd looked at him for a moment, then cracked a crooked smile of his own, his hand dropping from his stomach.

They could hear the cooks rifling around in the room behind them, but the threat had dissipated immediately… now a world away. The two shared muffled laughter at the futile search behind them. As the sounds faded away and the searchers left, the boys allowed themselves to laugh out loud.

"Man, that was awesome, yo! They were like 'grr, get the rat!' and we were like 'not today, foo!' Poof!"

Kurt laughed as much at Todd's impressions as at the actual situation. "It's handy, being able to teleport around, ja?"

"Hell yeah!" Todd bounced around excitedly.

Todd landed on some sort of computer console, and Kurt noticed his surroundings for the first time.

They had ended up in some sort of dusty old lab. Boxy computers lined the walls, and odd gadgets were set out in random places around the room.

Todd seemed to notice their surroundings at the same time Kurt did. He hopped down onto the keyboard, experimentally pushing several buttons. "Hey, I wonder what this is about, yo."

Kurt, on the other hand, wasn't as bold. "I don't think ve should touch anyzhing."

"What ya talkin' about, foo'? Ain't nothin' gonna happen."

As if to prove him wrong, Todd pressed a particular button, and the various screens suddenly blinked to life.

"January 22nd 1978," began a boy on the screens. "Hi there."

Todd squawked and jumped off, hopping over to hide behind Kurt.

Kurt laughed, "Nozhing going to happen, huh?"

The face was still talking, though, and all Kurt's amusement soon fled.

"… hearing this message, you got ten seconds before this lab self destructs."

There was an upsetting whirring sound around them, and Kurt felt Todd press hard into his back.

"Have a nice day… what's left of it," the face finished smugly, then disappeared to reveal a count-down.

10…

"Oh man, oh man!" Todd said.

9…

"Poof us outta here, Fuzzy!"

8…

7…

"You said you didn't vant-"

"Forget what I said!"

6….

5…

4…

"KURT!"

3…

Kurt whirled around and wrapped his arms around Todd. For the briefest second, he felt the other boy's trembling breath against his collarbone.

2…

1…

_Bamf._

_KABOOM._

They appeared back in the storage room a moment before the door was thrown open by the blast. Both of them were tossed back into the piles of boxes by the force.

After a while of sitting in a shaking huddle of limbs, the two of them slowly registered that the trouble had passed.

Todd was the first to move, releasing a trembling sigh against Kurt's throat that ruffled his fur. "That was close, yo," he mumbled into Kurt's shirt.

"Ja."

Kurt had somehow ended up pretty much wrapped around Todd… arms, legs, tail, and all. Todd, in the meantime, was huddled up into a protective ball, except for the arms that had found their way around Kurt's back. Kurt could feel on big hand touching a bit of fur poking out between the hem of his shirt and the tops of his pants, and figured it must be accidental. Very few people ever willingly touched him.

Reluctantly, Kurt pulled away, surprised at the feeling of lost intimacy that fled with it. It hadn't been that intimate, had it? Nothing like any of the touches Kurt had endured… under a leash and collar.

But then he met Todd's eyes, and saw the startlement on the pale face. He'd felt it too.

Both boys jumped back as if burned.

Kurt stood and cleared his throat, feeling his face go hot. He didn't look at Todd, but did hear the other boy brushing himself off.

"I wonder if there's anythin' left in there," Todd said after an awkward moment, and Kurt risked a glance. Todd was wandering back through the exploded door.

Kurt followed hesitantly. "You really vant to risk zhat happening a second time?"

"It self-destructed, foo'. That shit ain't gonna happen a second time."

Both boys headed back in, looking around. It was completely different… upended dust was still settling in a cloud amongst the ruined computer equipment. The floor was littered with bent metal, and anything left standing was cracked and broken.

Todd knocked experimentally against a standing console. It promptly fell apart into dozens of pieces. "Aw, man. Not gonna salvage any of _these _parts. This tech is ancient, yo."

"Und destroyed," Kurt added, stifling a chuckle.

"Pfft, details." Todd tossed a grin back at him, then looked away quickly. Kurt felt his face go hot again.

Kurt looked away too, then noticed something set out on a pedestal. "Hey, zhis seems to be in vun piece."

"Yeh?" Kurt and Todd both homed in on an odd device that looked a bit like the handlebars from a kitchy, high-tech bike or something.

Todd picked it up and examined it, even going so far as to stick out his tongue and lick it. "A little banged up, but I bet it still works… whatever it does."

"How do ve find out vhat it does?"

"How else, foo?" Kurt watched as Todd fiddled around with the buttons.

"You _just_ blew up a lab by doing zhat!"

"Yep. That's how you learn what not to touch."

Kurt's tail twitched uncertainly. "Maybe you shouldn't…"

Then, the device in Todd's hands made a soft whirring sound, followed by a high pitched ringing. Suddenly, Kurt was enveloped in a pink bubble of bright light.

He stumbled back, shielding his eyes. "Vas?" A buzzing sound filled his ear, and he felt a sensation of movement, just like teleporting.

When he opened his eyes, the light was gone… but so was the lab. And Todd.

Instead, he was standing in the middle of an empty hallway that he'd only seen through gratings. He was in the school, exposed.

And yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was even more wrong then that. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his head… displacement, like he'd teleported wrong or something. Like he'd overjumped reality altogether.

The question was: where had he landed?

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Todd stood motionless for a very long time, a shocked expression frozen on his face. Finally, a cracked "…Fuzzy?" escaped his throat.

Oh god, he'd killed Kurt. The one person who'd ever treated him like an equal, and he'd gone and killed him. Oh god, oh god.

Okay, no… maybe he wasn't dead. Even though it looked like this thing had vaporized the blue furball.

Wait, it had _vaporized_ someone… and he was still _holding_ it!

Todd gave a shriek and threw the machine across the room. It smashed into the opposite wall, its casing coming apart and the innards scattering amongst the rest of the debris in the lab.

Panic overriding all sense he might have had, Todd streaked out of the room. He never wanted to see that damned place again.


	8. Disappearing Act, part 3

"Brimstone? You're sure?"

"Yeah, man. That's what Mr. McCoy said."

Scott's head swiveled around, his gaze landing inevitably on the Brotherhood table, where four of the five were messing around and making general nuisances of themselves. "I knew we hadn't heard the last of Nightcrawler… but what's he doing in the school?"

Jean rubbed her temples, feeling the onset of a headache. Her lunch was still over by Duncan, growing cold. Meanwhile, she stood over the X-men's lunch table. Scott had called her over after Evan had come running in with his information.

Jean was finding it difficult to concentrate. Something was riling up the nearby cooks, making their thoughts a pounding racket that Jean fought to block. All she could catch was something about rats—a fact she dearly hoped wasn't true, as cafeteria food was bad enough without blatant health code violations.

"It's probably nothing, Scott," Jean said, trying to contain herself. There was no reason to snap at anyone, just because a couple cafeteria workers were having a bad day. "The Brotherhood has made it very clear that they have no intention of revealing mutants any time soon, and I see no other reason Nightcrawler would be in the school."

"Yeah, but the same could be said about the incident at the mall," Scott argued.

"It _was_ a chemistry lab," Rogue mumbled, glaring at her nachos. "There are all _sorts_ of weird smells in chemistry labs."

"Yes, exactly," Jean said, glad for the help.

Evan leaned forward, his palms on the table. "But Mr. McCoy specifically said he smelled brimstone… and, y'know, I think I might've heard that teleporting sound once during class."

"Guys, there's no need to-"

"Actually," Kitty said, tilting her head, "I think I heard it once today, too. I hope that doesn't mean he's been, like, spying on us or something." She shivered. "Creepy."

Jean sighed. "Look, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but there's really no reason to think…" She trailed off a babble of panicked thoughts wafted across the room.

…_oh god I killed him sorry Fuzzy oh god they're gonna kill me… what the hell __**was**__ that thing, like __**vaporized **__him, yo! So sorry Kurt oh god oh god…._

Jean turned quizzically and saw Toad walking into the room with forced nonchalance, looking _very_ pale and shaky. He faked a smile as he reached the Brotherhood table. The telepath's brows furrowed… those thoughts were definitely coming from him.

"Jean?"

She turned back around, and saw her friends peering at her in concern.

"I'm fine… but, on second thought, maybe there is reason to think he was here."

Evan pumped a fist victoriously in the air. "Yes!"

Scott, however, frowned more deeply. He knew her better than the others. "What is it?"

Jean shook her head; this was one of those things that was probably better to figure out _before_ she told the others. After all, Scott had a tendency to go overboard.

She doubted he'd take it well if she revealed that Toad had apparently killed Nightcrawler… she expected the police would get involved, and that was something the Institute didn't need.

And so, she returned to Duncan and ate her lunch with him while he talked about the next big party he was setting up. Occasionally, she telepathically eavesdropped on her friends—they were fixated on what sort of mischief Nightcrawler could do in the school… small surprise.

Mostly, though, she kept psychic tabs on Toad. The pale boy seemed to have some difficulty hiding the fear from his demeanor, which earned him some laughs and odd looks from the rest of the Brotherhood, but otherwise didn't draw any notice. Each time someone looked at him, though, Jean could sense a distinct jab of guilty fear stabbing through him, as if he was afraid that everyone knew and would call him on it.

The details of the event, however, eluded Jean, since Toad was avoiding that specific memory like the plague.

By the end of lunch, Toad had wound down a bit, and Jean was surprised by the way his mind began whirring like a machine booting up. More to her surprise was the methodical way he began reviewing the memory he had so recently been avoiding. Jean caught glimpses of a destroyed lab of some sort, and a machine that looked a little like a turtle. And a confused glimpse of Nightcrawler, hugging Toad close.

"What you thinkin' about, Jeanny?" Duncan's voice broke through her thoughts.

She shook the fog from her head and smiled up at her boyfriend. "Nothing."

"Well, then you'd better hurry up. Don't want a smart girl like you missing class." Duncan gave her his all-star smile, and Jean had to give in.

"Thanks, Duncan. I'll be along in a minute."

She picked up her lunch, turning her psychic attention back to the Brotherhood table. But they were picking up too, and one of their number had disappeared completely in the couple seconds she'd looked away.

Toad.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The first time someone had walked by—a pair of guys in letter jackets jostling around playfully, appearing as if from the ether—Kurt had scurried back around a corner. But the jocks disappeared a moment later, fading away from whence they'd come. A teacher walked by right behind him in his hiding place, and he jumped, startled, back into the hallway. Then, a trio of freshman girls walked right through him.

Right. _Through_. Him.

He shivered at the eerie feeling. He stood still as ethereal students filled the hallway around him, their voices echoing hollowly. It was like they were all ghosts.

Or he was.

He heard a familiar voice—Lance!—and turned to follow the sound.

"…know I didn't mean it like that, Pretty Kitty."

"Like, stop it with that nickname!" said the voice of Kitty, the X-man who'd screamed when she'd seen Kurt. "It is _so _lame."

Kurt found them near a locker, Lance looking more dejected than Kurt had ever seen the tough guy. Well, all the Brothers had their issues. Kitty, apparently, was one of Lance's.

"You said you thought it was cute."

"That was before I figured out what a loser you were." She gave him a glare.

"…this isn't about that comment I made about your hair last Thursday…is it?"

"Ergh! No, but, like, thanks for bringing that up!" Kitty slammed her locker shut. "You are _such_ a… ARGH!" She whirled and stalked down the hall.

Lance watched for a moment, looking absolutely stunned. Then, he shook himself out of it, looked around to make sure no one was paying attention, and ran after her. "Kitty, wait!"

Kurt let them leave his immediate area, which meant they dissipated into nothingness like everyone else. Lance's eyes had gone right through Kurt, just like everyone else's. He was invisible… nobody stared, but simply went about their business with no care at all to his presence.

It was as close to normal as he had ever been.

So maybe he was a ghost or something. He was certainly scared, and wanted to figure out what had happened to him.

But on the other hand… he had never had a chance like this before. He was standing among the normal people, able to mingle with them. To pretend, at least for a time, that he was one of them.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

_Okay, this… and this… was this part of it? Aw, heck, put it in the pile and figure it out later._

Todd rifled through the lab that, a half hour ago, he had vowed never to return to. His backpack was open on the floor, and he was currently tossing anything that he _thought_ might have been part of the device inside it. Fortunately, the general shell was still intact—the wires inside had kept it together. There were just a couple tiny bits that had fallen among the debris… unfortunately, those were the parts he had to find.

_I don't even know what this is… better toss it in._

His hands and tongue were working nonstop to put part after part into the bag.

At some point between the beginning of lunch and the end, Todd had realized that he was alone on this one. Lance _would_ kill him if he ever found out… if the X-men and the police didn't figure it out first. The best way to fix it, therefore, was to figure out exactly what he'd done and to somehow find a way to undo it.

After all, maybe the furball wasn't vaporized. Wouldn't there be some sort of blue fuzzy residue if he had been? And Fuzzy hadn't exactly screamed or anything… which meant no pain. So he had to be okay, right? Just… somewhere else.

Yeah, like a teleport! No way a teleport would hurt a teleporter!

…but then why hadn't Fuzzy teleported back?

Todd shoved back the strange twist in his gut with the same gusto he was stuffing his bag. Finally, convinced that he'd gathered everything he could, he zipped the bag up… it barely closed over the device's big round shell, but he got it to close with some effort.

Then, with a last look around—just in case there _was _some sort of fuzzy blue residue—he hopped out. He needed to shoplift some tinkering tools, and it'd be easier to do that while school was still in session.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"I'm telling you, there was a ghost! A blue, furry ghost!"

Scott's head snapped around like some sort of cyborg. Target identified. Locked. Firing in 3… 2… 1…

"Excuse me, did you say something about a ghost?"

Evan smirked at his own private joke. Classic. Leave it to Cyclops to make a school day feel like a mission.

The guy who had been talking to his friends turned around and stared at him. "Yeah… yeah. It was real, I swear!"

Scott held up his hands placatingly. "Hey, I believe you. Out of curiosity… where did you see it?"

"It was in Mrs. McGellen's room, just now!"

Scott sent Evan a Significant Look and the pair of them headed toward the indicated history classroom.

Things had been pretty quiet since lunch, but Scott was the first to point out that two class periods of peace didn't mean something wasn't brewing. They had one more period before school was out, and they still had not tracked down Nightcrawler. As Scott would (and did) say, time was running out.

Now, they had a lead.

They entered the classroom, which was currently filling with a couple nerds who didn't waste their entire passing period just so they didn't have to spend an extra minute in class… like, say, Evan did.

They entered, and Evan wasn't really surprised to see no hint of the Nightcrawler. But even more surprising…

"No brimstone," Scott said after discretely sniffing the air.

"Yeah. Weird. You think he left some other way?"

"I don't see how." Scott peered up at the vent, standing on a desk to tap at the screws holding the grating in. This earned him odd looks from the people already in the classroom.

Scott hopped off the desk, ignoring the nerds. "Something is really fishy here."

"Not me, dude. I had the chicken."

Scott made a motion that Evan assumed meant he was rolling his eyes. But he didn't say anything, and instead led the way back out.

The warning bell rang for final period. They were out of time.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The final bell of the day rang, like a distant knell through the fog of the strange world Kurt had found himself in. He watched the ghostly students filing out of the school, mourning the loss. He had spent the entire day sitting in on classes and following people through the halls. Sure, what he had done was probably a violation of privacy on many counts, but it satisfied part of that lonely longing inside him. And now, that feeling was back.

The illusion dropped, and he suddenly felt just how isolated he was. No one to talk to… he was trapped and alone. Trapped… caged.

He made his way to the entrance of the school, but couldn't pass through it. The odd netherworld he was in went no further than the school walls. He tried to teleport past it… but it was like hitting a wall head-first.

And to make matters worse, teleporting here felt… funny. Like he slipped every time he landed. Dropped a bit too far. Like a rollercoaster ride that went on a bit too long.

He wanted to get out. He tried teleporting in a couple different directions. Out to the parking lot… wall. Through the service exit out of the kitchen… wall. Up to the roof… more of a ceiling, but the same sensation. There was simply no place outside to port _to_.

He was trapped, and this time, there was no way out.

A howl bubbled up in his throat, but he bit it back with some effort. Instead, what came out was something between a sob and a whimper.

He sat down glumly on a desktop in an empty classroom, looking despondently out the window into the fuzzy whiteness beyond. When he heard the echo of footsteps in the corridor outside, he assumed it was someone getting out late, leaving a ghostly echo through the world he was trapped in.

He did not, however, expect a head to poke around the open doorframe, look directly at him, and give an enthusiastic "Far out!"

Kurt's head jerked up. The guy was not ghostly like the rest of them… he looked real. Moreover, he was looking _right at Kurt_.

Kurt reacted instinctively, leaping from the desk to the ceiling tile.

"What are you, man?" The guy stepped farther in, looking fascinated.

…fascinated? Not fearful?

"I'm… um… I'm a mutant."

The other boy walked below him, now just looking curious. "Mutant? As in, mutated genetics?"

"Ja… " Kurt let himself off the ceiling, dropping down onto the desk next to the guy. He crouched there nervously as the guy walked a circle around him.

"Groovy look, man. But how'd you get here?"

Kurt's tail twitched nervously, his head swiveling to follow the other boy's path. "A friend and I vere in a lab, and zhere vas zhis…" Kurt paused, the boy's face suddenly sprang into his memory. "Vait! It vas you! You vere on zhe computer screen!"

"So you found my old lab, huh?" The boy put a hand to his chin. "You musta gotten stuck here the same way I did."

Kurt was slowly starting to relax around this guy. He didn't seem to mind Kurt's appearance at all. "Vhere is 'here', exactly?"

"Middleverse. Well… _I _call it Middleverse. It's a pocket dimension I sort of accidentally created."

Kurt couldn't help but release a disbelieving laugh. "How do you _accidentally_ create a pocket dimension?"

"Eh, you mess around with the time-space continuum enough, it's bound to happen eventually."

The guy gave Kurt an easy smile, as if talking like some sort of junior mad scientist was par for the course.

Kurt gave another laugh, a little more at ease. "I can't believe you're not afraid of me."

"You kidding? I'm relieved. I thought I was the only one."

With that, he held out his right arm, and it transformed with a mechanical whir, forming into some sort of all purpose power tool.

"Mein Gott."

"Trippy, huh?" He flexed it again, making the little metal arms coming off the side flex and spin. "I invented it myself. In fact, I invented a lot of things myself… it's kinda what I do. Name's Forge."

"I'm Kurt. All I really do is creep people out."

"If that's true, then this'll probably be one long vacation for you."

Kurt blinked, easing down to stand on the floor. "Vhat do you mean?"

"What it sounds like, man. There's no way out of here… not without help from the other side, anyway."

"You mean… ve're trapped here?"

"Yeah." Forge rubbed the back of his head. "And let me tell you, after twenty years in here, I'm glad for at least some company. It gets pretty lonely, having no one to talk to for years at a time."

Kurt looked down. "Ja, tell me about it."

Forge looked at him curiously, but Kurt just shook his head and smiled. This was a lot better than any illusion he had been indulging in earlier that day.

So, having nothing better to do than talk, they did.


	9. Disappearing Act, part 4

_(Author's Note: Please excuse the upcoming sketchy techno-babble. It's sci fi fiction, so I think a little liberty is called for from time to time. Enjoy!)_

Apparently, over the course of the school day, everyone had lost their freaking minds.

Lance was moody and snappish, which meant he tried to shake the house down at the slightest provocation. It probably had something to do with him and Kitty-Cat being "so, like, totally over." Again. _Seriously, take the hint, leader-boy. The two of you will never, ever work. Get over it and move on._

Then, Boom Boom had blown up another vending machine in school, which wasn't all that unusual. Except that, after having one's vending machines busted on a regular basis, one starts to take precautions against it happening again. Long story short: Tabitha had been caught on a security camera and was now down at the big house being strip searched for explosives. Knowing her, she was flirting with some police deputy while doing it.

And then there was Toad, who was just acting freaking _suspicious_. All evening, the frog-boy had been hunkered in his room. Occasionally, he'd emerge to snap something from the kitchen with that tongue of his, then disappear back into his room again. If one listened closely, one might be able to hear the sounds of power tools. Seriously… what the fuck?

And then there was the fact that the furball was nowhere to be found. That was completely out of character, considering that Fuzzbutt was always at the door to greet them when they got home from school, tail wagging like a loyal, needy, socially stunted dog. Now, suddenly, he'd just disappeared. Poof, no more off-color questions and blue clumps of fur in the bathroom sink (seriously… Toad's slime was bad enough!).

And that of course got Fred all flustered and concerned, which—since more subtle emotions confused him—made him _angry._ Which meant he was now taking out his concern by smashing everything in sight. The Blob had apparently adopted the freak, and now acted like the furball was a beloved dog who had run away, instead of a blue freak-boy who was completely capable of taking care of himself and—oh yeah—_teleporting_ out of any dangerous situation ever. Fred seemed to be under the impression that Fuzzbutt had been kidnapped. With what? An _anti-teleportation_ cage? If anyone ever managed to trap a teleporter… kudos to them; they deserved him.

This all left Pietro as the only sane one left in the whole boarding house, and that was enough to make him want to bang his head against the wall. As fast as possible… which for him was pretty damn fast.

_Crash!_

"BLOB! That was a PERFECTLY good chair!"

…._rumblerumblerumble…_

"Where… is… HE?"

"I don't know. Now sit down or you'll be tearing through _rubble_!"

…._rumblerumblerumble…_

Sweet Moses, he needed some Advil, or something. Maybe a stiff drink. Or a shotgun to the head. Any of the above would have been just dandy at this point.

Pietro rolled his head on his shoulders and leisurely walked out of the shaking, rumbling house. Once outside, he took a breath to enjoy the nice _quiet_ air, and continued on to begin a relaxing walk through their part of town.

He was not, however, expecting to see a set of familiar figures, heading up the path toward the boarding house. There was a very pristine red sports car parked next to Lance's ratty jeep. Talk about adding insult to injury; these people could afford cars that cost about as much as the entire boarding house.

Pietro leaned casually against the stoop as the X-geeks approached, posing himself so as to seem entirely unconcerned. Whatever these goody-goodies wanted, they'd know that this was Brotherhood turf.

The group of five stopped halfway up the path, taking in Pietro like he was taking in them. Summers was in front (surprise surprise) with Jeanny Grey and Rogue on either side of him. Daniels was glaring murderous daggers at Pietro from behind Summers, with Lance's precious Kitty-Cat bringing up the distant rear. Given her recent argument with Lance, she was probably in 'never want to see him again' mode, and had come along reluctantly. Yawn, get some new tricks, Kitty-Cat.

Finally, Pietro offered a snarky, "I-wouldn't-go-in-there-if-I-were-you. Blob's-having-a-little-temper-tantrum."

As if on cue, a dresser drawer crashed through an upstairs window and landed in the front yard. The X-geeks all flinched, which only made the entire encounter even more enjoyable for the speedster.

"We ain't afraid a' him," said Rogue in that obnoxious southern drawl of hers. Pietro had always hated the sound of her voice, the little traitor.

Pietro narrowed his eyes. "Then-by-all-means-be-my-guest. Who-am-I-to-stop-the-X-men-from-going-wherever-they-want-as-if-they-own-the-entire-world?"

"Wow. Like, bitter much?" Kitty snarked.

Pietro pushed off from the stoop. A moment later, he had zipped around behind the foolish fivesome and whispered in Kitty-Cat's ear: "Not-as-bitter-as-poor-Lancey-poo-after-you-screwed-with-his-head-again."

She yelped and made to swat him, but he zipped back around to stand in front of them, coming to a stop with his arms crossed. It always unnerved people when he did that… he loved that feeling. It was a minor power rush that, let's face it, he was genetically obligated to enjoy.

"So-what-do-you-think-you're-doing-here? Certainly-you're-not-just-wandering-into-the-lion's-den-for-the-sake-of-it."

"No," said 'look-at-me-I'm-responsible' Summers, as if there weren't several months of bad blood between their teams. "If you don't mind, we'd like to talk to the entire Brotherhood."

At that moment, a desk lamp flew through the broken second story window, breaking into several pieces when it hit the drawer already on the ground. Shortly after that, Lance's voice could be heard shouting, "BLOB! KNOCK IT OFF!" followed by the mild trembling of the entire structure.

Pietro gave them all a smirk. "Yeah-that's-not-gonna-happen. If-you'd-like-to-leave-a-message-please-leave-your-name-and-number-after-the-beep. Beeeeeeeep."

Summers put on a show of trying to be the big man, which Pietro thought very annoying. "Then can we just talk to Nightcrawler?"

"That-was-a-pretty-crummy-message. No-name-or-number… how-can-we-ever-get-back-to-you?"

"I mean it, Maximoff."

Pietro was mindful of the fact that Summers's hand was on his glasses, which meant he was aiming those nasty beams of his. Even so, he tried to act nonchalant. "I-don't-think-the-furball-wants-to-talk-to-you. I-know-I-wouldn't."

"If that's so, then let him tell us that."

"Yeah-right." Pietro shook his head disbelievingly. "You-come-here-all-banded-up-like-you're-ready-for-war, then-claim-you're-just-looking-to-'talk'-to-our-newest-least-battle-ready-member? Go-shoot-your-ducks-somewhere-else-X-geeks. We're-not-interested."

Daniels—the eternal thorn in Pietro's side—spoke up. "Then you've already talked to him about his being in school today?"

Not much could stop Pietro in his tracks. He rather prided himself in being unstoppable. But hearing that their most visible member, who everyone else had adopted like some sort of mascot, had been in a _very_ public place, which could very well break up all sorts of plans and get them all killed by a murderous mob… that came very, very close.

Pietro zipped over into Daniels's face and stared at him, narrow-eyed. "What-was-that?"

His childhood rival smiled smugly. "So you didn't know, huh? Yeah, I thought so."

That stung. "Of-course-I-knew," he snapped defensively. "We-keep-close-tabs-on-the-furball."

"So where is he now?" This from the red-head in the cheerleader section. Her expression, however, was flat and serious, not challenging at all. It was like she really wanted to know.

…what the fuck?

"What-is-_that-_supposed-to-mean?"

"He's not in the boarding house. If he _was_ in the school at one point, he wasn't there when I checked telepathically during final period. In fact, I looked for him throughout Bayville as best I could, not being familiar with his mental signature… but as far as I could tell, he wasn't anywhere. Like he didn't exist. So where is he, Pietro?"

Pietro felt himself going cold, like his muscles were stiffening up. It was not a pleasant sensation.

The furball was… gone? Missing was one thing… but gone?

Was this his fault somehow? No, couldn't be. He'd purposefully ignored the furball, just so no plans would be messed up, or anything.

"Pfft," said Daniels. "Just admit you're in the dark, Pie-Pie."

He saw nothing for a moment but red murder. He _hated _that nickname. "Get-lost-X-geeks-and-kindly-stay-the-hell-out-of-our-business."

With that finality, he zipped away from them and into the house, slamming the door pointedly behind him. A moment later, he was in the TV room, where Lance had finally subdued Fred… a process that apparently involved a coffee table and several miles of copper wire.

Pietro stared at the scene, taking in the large form lying placidly on the floor, and the one simmering darkly in the armchair. Then, he shrugged and bypassed the Blob altogether, heading right over to their fearless leader. He stopped wisely out of biting distance.

"You'll-never-guess-who-I-just-left-on-our-doorstep."

Lance's head fell wearily back against the chair. "Not _now, _Pietro."

"No-seriously. The-X-geeks-are-here-looking-for-the-furball."

"What?" Lance sprang from the chair and went to a front-facing window, peering out of it. Pietro followed leisurely after him. "No shit. Even-"

"So-help-me-if-your-next-sentence-is-about-Kitty-Cat-I'm-putting-you-out-of-your-misery-while-you-sleep-tonight."

Lance sent him a glare. Together, the pair watched the X-geeks argue for a bit, then they turned and headed back to Summers' fancy little car. Only once they were gone did Lance speak again. "Okay, I'll bite. What did they want with Kurt?"

Pietro put on forced nonchalance. "Something-about-him-being-at-school-today."

Lance's face went red. "WHAT?"

_Crash_.

"Ow!" _thump_ "Ow!" _thump_ "Ow!" _thump_ "Ow!"

Lance, Pietro, and Fred all turned at the distinctive sound of Toad falling down the stairs. The pale boy landed at the bottom of the staircase—visible through the doorway from among a pile of scattered tools—and gave them all a nervous smile. "Oh… he-hey guys. Whassup?"

Lance's eyes caught Pietro's, and they exchanged a look. Oh yeah, that was one guilty Toad.

The pair advanced on the smaller boy, who cowered appropriately.

"You don't happen to know anything about this…" Lance said very deliberately. "Do you, Tolansky?"

"N-no! I mean… about what? I ain't got no idea what yer talkin' about!"

"Uh-huh," said Pietro. "You-didn't-happen-to-be-eavesdropping-did-you-Toad?"

Lance, however, was much more direct. He reached down, picked Toad up by the back of the shirt, and put his face in Toad's face (Pietro could only guess how he withstood Toad's mega-breath). "WHERE'S NIGHTCRAWLER?"

…_rumblerumble…_

"I-I dunno, yo! I swear!" You could always tell a successfully intimidated Toad by the way he… no wait, Toad was _always_ successfully intimidated. The guy had all the spine of a jellyfish.

"Then what DO you know?"

"I-I… I didn't mean to! I swear to god I'll fix it!" Toad was nearly in tears now, which meant he was really working _himself_ up over this, because Lance wasn't really trying that hard. Lance sent Pietro a 'this is serious' look. Pietro shrugged… yeah, like he cared.

Fred lumbered up (having picked off all the copper wire at some point), extricated the Toad from Lance's grip, carried him bodily into the TV room, and set him down on the couch like a naughty child. Then, he loomed rather ominously over Toad and said a single word: "Talk."

Toad gulped audibly.

And talk he did, spilling out a high-pitched convoluted story about how he'd been eating 'lunch' ("Spare-us-the-details-for-the-love-of-god!") in the parking lot, and had spotted the furball lurking outside the school's back entrance. He told about how they'd been chased and hid in some sort of lab, then promptly gotten it blown up ("Only you two…"). Finally, he squeaked out about how he and Kurt had accidentally set off some sort of device in the lab which made the latter disappear in a freaking pink bubble (Seriously) and then how he'd promptly broken the device and fled. By the end of it, Toad was spilling it out in such a hyper-paced panicked babble that Pietro had to translate for the other two.

Then, Toad mutely picked up the powertools that had dropped down the stairs with him and carried them while leading the other boys up to his room.

Pietro had always been loathe to enter Toad's room (for reasons rather obvious to anyone with the slightest sense of smell), but in this case, he was forced to make an exception. Toad led them in and showed them to the rickety desk, currently illuminated by a flashlight suspended from the ceiling by a string of twine and stuck to the ceiling with slime. The makeshift ceiling lamp waved sickeningly every time Blob moved.

On the desk was what the Brotherhood could only assume to be the device. A large white semi-circle shell sat at one corner. The rest of it was open, revealing a bunch of wires, notches, cards, and what appeared to be some sort of fan. Pietro couldn't make heads or tails of it.

But apparently, Toad could.

"This right here is what does the trick, yo," said Toad, pointing to some sort of coil. "I gotta tighten it to give off the right pulse, but I ain't sure what frequency it was set at."

Lance blinked. "Pulse?"

"Yeh. I think I got it figured out. This shit's like this weird dimensional shifter thing. It ported Fuzzy to a different freq, and now we just gotta find it, and we should be able to get him back! But I checked the doohickey's memory for hints on which wavelength to use… but it's pretty shitty, yo. Like, pre-CPU stuff… real old."

After they stayed silent for a bit too long, Toad turned back toward them quizzically. Pietro was shamelessly staring, open-mouthed and all, and he could only assume the others wore similar expressions, judging by the way Toad cringed.

"What'd I do?"

A beat of silence, long and a little awed.

Lance was the one who broke first. "Where the _hell_ have you been hiding this?"

"Did-you-somehow-cheat-when-figuring-this-thing-out? I-know-you-do-the-ATM-thing-but-this-is-pretty-far-fetched. Maybe-it's-all-some-elaborate-sham."

"Uh… can you repeat that, Todd? S'like you were talkin' another language or somethin'."

Toad scratched at his rat's nest hair nervously. "Eheheh… Yeh, I always just been good wit' technology, y'know? It's nothin' special."

"This is _way_ special," Lance pressed. "In fact, this is hands-down the coolest thing I've ever seen you do."

Toad blinked, startled. "Me? Do somethin' cool?"

"Yeah-I'm-shocked-too," Pietro added helpfully.

Toad shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "It ain't like I can invent or hack or nothin'. And I ain't exactly had lots of practice, except wit' street ATMs and pay phones, and that one abandoned computer store where I lived a while-"

Lance finally slapped a hand over Toad's mouth. "Now's the point where you stop talking and finish fixing the machine."

Toad shook off the hand. "But s'like I said, foo'. I _can't_ fix it. I ain't got the freq."

Lance glared at the offending device for a moment, then his brows furrowed thoughtfully. He took a step closer and pointed. "This the coil?"

"Yeh."

"And if it's been made for a certain frequency, it should resonate really well on that or something, right?"

"Uh… yeh… But how'd you…"

"Tolansky, you may be some sort of secret tech genius… but if there's one thing I know, it's shaking stuff." He tossed a smirked over his shoulder at Pietro. "Hey Quicksilver, how fast do you think you can count?"

Pietro caught on quickly, and returned the grin. "Faster-than-you-can-hope-to-shake-it-Avalanche."

Lance and Pietro clustered around the machine, and Pietro took a deep breath and switched on his super-speed.

A burst of adrenaline coursed through him, and everything around him slowed down. Suddenly, he was king of the world, the speed high better than any drug or other mundane high. He had power over time… he could beat a bullet, hit someone a hundred times before they realized he was there, and maybe even bend the rules of time and space. The laws of physics were his bitch.

He reined himself in before he got too carried away, but still had plenty of time before slow-motion Lance began making the little coil vibrate. It seemed to stretch and bend uncomfortably, like a calm pond disturbed by an elephant running into it. No, obviously not it. Eventually, it vibrated a bit faster, this time bending a different way. But still oddly. No, still not it.

He sat like that for a while, waiting for the coil to do something other than writhe like a tortured snake.

Then, _there. _Something was different about this one. He counted 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9….17.5.

Reluctantly, he let go of super-speed, feeling his ears pop as he dropped back to normal. "Got-it," he said triumphantly. "17.5 pulses a second."

Lance nodded and turned back to Toad. "Think you can finish it now?"

Toad grinned toothily, "Yeh, no prob."

"Great," Pietro said. "Because-no-offense-Toad, but-I-need-to-get-out-of-this-room-before-I-barf."

Toads bright expression faded. Somehow, that made it all worth it.


	10. Disappearing Act, part 5

"So if your teleporting works how I think it does, I should be able to alter the frequency of the teleport, and, provided someone on the other side figures out how my transdimensional projector works, we might be able to open a pathway you can teleport through."

"I'm… not really sure vhat you just said," Kurt said uncertainly, "but I trust that you know vhat you're doing."

Forge smiled that easy smile, never bothered in the least by the fact that a good deal of what he said went right over the German's head.

"It probably won't become an issue anyway. I mean, I was in here for twenty years before someone found my lab. Who knows how long it will take to happen again?"

"Not too long, I zhink," Kurt said slyly. "Ve kind of blew the door down vhen ve made it self-destruct."

Forge gave a low whistle. "Well done. That might move things along a _little _faster. Provided my projector doesn't get sent away with the trash."

Kurt wilted, and Forge laid a comforting metal arm on his shoulderblade.

"Sorry to be a downer, man. I just don't want to get your hopes up."

Kurt nodded. He had practice being trapped. This cage, at least, was big. And he had someone to share it with.

The two of them had been hanging out steadily since school got out. Now, the windows out of the Middleverse school were darkened by nightfall, meaning that the boys had been talking for hours. Kurt had learned quite a bit about American life in the seventies, while Forge had learned what little Kurt remembered about living in rural Germany. Forge had elaborated passionately about his many different inventions, and it became obvious pretty quickly that Forge was no mere prodigy.

He was a mutant, too. His power? Invention.

"Yeah," Forge had said. "I've always figured there was _something_ weird about me. I mean, I could build a decent block tower as a kid, but then puberty hit and wham, I was building particle accelerators and opening trans-dimensional vortexes. I actually once came pretty close to an honest-to-goodness time machine. Can you believe it?" He'd laughed.

"I vish I had a mutation like zhat," Kurt had said, while hanging upside-down from a ceiling panel. "Instead, I look like zhis, and everyvun hates me. All I vant is to be normal."

"Normal, huh?" Forge had grinned playfully up at him. "I'm afraid I wouldn't know about _that_… but if it helps, I don't think many people do."

"Vhat do you mean?"

"'Normal' is all relative, man. The squares are normal to the squares. The burn-outs are normal to the burn-outs. The freaks are normal to the freaks. And on and on like that. I bet you think I'm normal, right?"

"Vell, ja."

"Nope. Most of my classmates thought I was a total weirdo."

"You don't seem zhat veird to me."

"Really? Nothing weird about having a secret lab under the school that had a device in it that trapped you in a pocket dimension with the inventor of said device?"

"Erm… you may have a point."

Forge had just grinned, leaving Kurt to think about that for a while.

Now, they were both surprised when they heard the ghostly echo of footsteps and voices, well after school hours.

"…seen a mutant more difficult tah keep track of than this guy," a girl was saying in an American southern accent.

"Yeah… like, why are we trying so hard?" said a familiar voice. Kitty. "He's, like, a demon thing. It's totally creepy."

"I think it's cool," said Evan's voice. "Totally hard-core, man. Nothing strikes terror in the face of evil like a guy that looks like a _demon_."

"Except Nightcrawler may turn out to be one of the evils we're trying to strike terror into," said Summers.

Forge and Kurt followed the voices into the hallway, keeping curiously after the ghostly forms.

"Friends of yours?" Forge asked.

"Not really," Kurt replied. "Kind of the opposite, actually."

"Oh. Bummer."

"Ja."

"You picking anything up, Jean?" asked Summers.

"Nothing," replied the red-head. "But this is the last place anyone saw him, so there's got to be a clue somewhere."

"I can't believe the professor thinks we can still recruit that creep," Kitty grumbled.

"Hey," said Summers, jerking a thumb toward the stripe-haired girl. "It worked for Rogue."

"Yeah, well at least _Ah_ didn't keep runnin' off an' disappearin' every five seconds. Seriously, this guy is a case a' bad press just waitin' ta happen."

Kurt felt himself wilt a little as the two of them continued following the X-men through the school. "Zhey're kind of right."

Forge slanted him a curious look. "Do stuff like this a lot, huh?"

"Ja. I try to learn more about zhe vorld, and I end up vith murderous mobs after me."

"Burn, man."

"Ja."

The group passed through a door into the darkened cafeteria… a door that was closed in the Middleverse. No matter…. Kurt grabbed Forge's shoulder and teleported them both into the cafeteria after them, only stumbling a little on the landing.

"Trippy ride, man," Forge said, also staggering a bit.

But that was drowned out by Jean's cry of, "Wait! I felt him!"

Forge and Kurt both froze and watched as Jean turned around and peered at the exact spot where they stood.

"Where?" Summers demanded.

"He… he's gone. But he was definitely here just a second ago… Kind of muffled. Like hearing an echo or something."

"Far out!" Forge said. "She totally locked in on you when you ported!"

Kurt blinked, excited hope overriding any doubts he had about the presence of the X-men. "She's psychic. She can hear zhoughts."

"So if you're projecting the right thoughts when you port, you can totally communicate with her!"

Kurt and Forge shared an excited grin, but then Kurt's faded. "No, vait. Zhese people do not mean vhat is best for me. I…. ve can't trust zhem."

"Kurt, my man… I don't think we have much choice."

Kurt was still eyeing the team with trepidation when another choice made itself known. Loudly.

Something that Forge and Kurt couldn't see crashed, and a familiar voice said, "I-thought-I-told-you-losers-to-stay-out-of-our-business."

Kurt spun and took a couple steps, and the Brotherhood appeared from the ether, dressed for battle. Even better was the object grasped in Todd's large hands.

"They have the projector! Rock on!" Forge was grinning like a maniac. "Man, we have someone who can communicate with us _and _the projector. This is our chance!"

"Ja, it vould be, except for vun thing."

"What?'

"Zhey hate eachozher."

An echoing voice cried, "Well, we're making it our business!" And then the pair watched as the two teams engaged in battle.

Kurt flinched as he watched the blows flying around, particularly when Evan knocked the projector out of Todd's hands. He was still unsure how to take Todd, after that weird moment back in the storage room, but it couldn't be too bad, or else Todd wouldn't have come back for him again. It was just like every other problem the Brotherhood handled… bad stuff happened, but when everything was said and done, they were still a team.

Kurt turned, and noticed that Forge was no longer right beside him. In fact, Forge was sitting on a table, ignoring the battle altogether as he took apart what Kurt had assumed was a real leg. Perhaps not as real as he'd thought.

"Vhat are you doing, Forge?"

"I'm repurposing my leg into something we can use to port us out of here, just in case. Because if we get a window, it's gonna be short."

Kurt walked closer to him, the sounds of battle getting tinny as he moved away from it. "I didn't know your leg vas…"

"Mechanical? Yeah, it surprised my parents when they found out, too."

Kurt fidgeted as Forge pulled out what looked like a circuit board out of his suddenly metallic leg and started welding bits of wire to it. "So… how did you…?" Kurt faded out, wondering how to put the question without sounding nosy and insensitive.

"Let's put it this way… have you ever heard the phrase 'I'd give an arm and a leg to ace astronomical physics'?"

"Erm… not zhose exact vords, no."

Forge tossed him a grin, then sawed through the entire leg, cutting the metal object off at the shin and using it to encase… whatever he'd been doing. "Well, let's just say I took it a bit more literally than most. Man, were my parents steamed."

Kurt smiled back. "Ja, not somezhing you vant to break to zhem out of zhe blue, huh?"

Forge nodded and sat up, apparently finished. The result looked kind of like an exploded remote control with wires sticking out of it and a little metal foot on the end. "Okay. I'm going to stick these wires onto various nexuses around your body, okay?"

"You're zhe smart inventor guy."

"Hey, you can only call me smart _after_ I get us out of this. Then, I'll have earned it. Deal?"

"Deal."

They returned to the battle, Kurt supporting a now-one-legged Forge while the inventor struggled to attach little electrode things to his temples, throat, and sides.

They stepped back into the battle in time to see that the Brotherhood had once again been bested. Pietro was a twitching pile off the one side, while Fred was stuck to the wall by a number of spikes. Lance and Todd had somehow been tied to a support column by a fire hose, the projector on the ground about twenty feet away.

The X-men were moving around, picking up in the same post-fight manner Kurt had caught them in before. Kitty walked over to the projector and picked it up.

"Whoa. Like, what is this thing, a 70s throwback?"

Forge smirked. "Nah, that's _genuine_ 70s, bunny."

Kurt nudged Forge. "Vhat do ve do?"

"Okay. I need you to teleport, and tell them to press the projector reset button in order to reestablish the connection between the anchor dimension and this one, thus allowing us to pass through from this side."

"Zhat's… razher vordy for a split-second teleport."

"Just get out what you can."

Kurt nodded and set Forge on the ground. Then, he focused his mind, trying to think of one simple word: _reset_.

_Bamf._

He reappeared a foot away from where he'd been, and stooped down to pick Forge up again, just as Jean spun and said, "There he was again!"

Summers stopped glaring at Lance long enough to turn quizzically on the girl. "Same thing? He disappeared?"

"Yeah, but before he did…his thoughts were really focused on something."

Kurt and Forge exchange excited looks.

"Did you catch what?"

"I… I think he said 'Reset.'"

Forge and Kurt whooped and high-fived.

Summers furrowed his brows. "'Reset'? What's that supposed to mean?"

Jean shook her head in confusion. But before Kurt's heart could begin to sink, a green tongue arced across the room, snatching the projector from Kitty's grasp and returning it to Todd's. During the distraction, it seemed, Lance and Todd had been able to free themselves (a process that apparently involved quite a bit of slime, judging by how slimy both of them were).

Todd handled the projector like a well-known toy, immediately zeroing in on the correct button and pressing it. And sure enough, a pink globe of light—not unlike the one that had trapped Kurt in the first place—burst out.

"Come on!" Forge cried, tugging Kurt toward the globe.

Kurt obediently ran over to the globe, as fast as he could while supporting Forge. Forge did something to the… thing… he'd attached to Kurt, and the blue mutant started to feel an odd thrumming through the wires.

Then, they were in the beam, and everyone was pointing at them.

"Teleport us out, now!" Forge cried.

He didn't need to be told twice.

_Bamf._

The pair of them appeared outside the beam, and the projector whirred to a stop a moment later. Kurt stumbled with the force of the teleport, feeling like he had just landed roughly on the ground after several hours in the air.

"FUZZY!"

A moment later, Kurt was tackled to the ground by a weeping Todd Tolansky. The pale boy sobbed out various apologies and "oh god, I thought I killed you"s. Kurt just sat there, stunned and patting Todd's back in surprise.

Everything was forgiven and forgotten, it seemed.

The X-men stared at the scene openly, looking a little taken aback. This allowed the Brotherhood to pick up the pieces of their own team and close in around their two smallest members.

"Well?" Pietro snapped at the X-men. "You-obviously-failed-to-stop-our-nefarious-plot-to-find-a-missing-team-member… so-go-lick-your-wounds-or-something."

"This isn't over," said Summers.

"Uh, yeah. It is," said Lance. "I don't know what you losers want with the furball, but I think it's time you stop. He's Brotherhood, whether you goody-goodies like it or not."

Kurt couldn't help but beam up at his team leader. For all his faults, Lance knew how to make a guy feel like part of something.

"You don't understand what you're doing," said Jean. "With you guys, he's never going to fit in… but Professor Xavier can help him with that."

A couple hours ago, Kurt might have been tempted by that. And he could tell by the hesitant glances he got from Lance and Pietro that they expected him to bite the bait.

Instead, Kurt shook his head at Lance and Pietro, and both looked pleased (albeit reluctantly, in Pietro's case). "I shouldn't have to hide vhat I am. None of us should. But if being normal requires I leave my team, zhen no zhank you. I vould much razher be a Brozherhood freak zhan a normal X-man."

Summers looked mildly insulted, but Jean's hand on his shoulder stopped them from pursuing that conversation. Instead, he bowed his head. "I'll be sure to tell the Professor your decision."

"You do that, Summers," Lance sneered as the X-men filed out. "Until next time, losers."

There was a thick silence in the air after they left… part victory, part thought. Then, it was broken by a whirring sound, followed by several crunches and clanks. The Brotherhood all looked curiously toward the noise.

Forge had hopped over to the projector and picked it up, one-legged. He had then switched his mechanical arm to drill mode and was currently plunging it into the projector.

"Aw man," Todd said with a hysterical giggle into Kurt's fur, reminding Kurt that they were still locked in that close embrace. "An' I spent all day fixin' that."

"Trust me," Kurt responded to his friend with a grin. "It's better off broken."

"So-uh-out-of-curiosity… who-the-hell-is-this?"

"Everybody, zhis is Forge. Forge, everybody."

Forge waved his mechanical arm. "Hello." At their continued staring, he genially explained, "It was my transdimensional projector that entrapped Kurt in the pocket dimension in the first place."

All three standing Brothers exchanged confused looks. Eventually, Lance said, "If you say so, man."

Kurt sniggered, glad he wasn't the only one who had difficulty understanding Forge.

"Hey, Kurt," Forge said, settling down on a cafeteria table. "Think I can have my leg back?"

"Oh, ja." Kurt tried to pry himself away from Todd's deathhold, both of them laughing as he clung on harder just to be obnoxious. Eventually, he got Todd turned around to cling to his back, and detached the odd thing that used to be a mechanical leg. "Here… going to re-repurpose it?"

"More like de-repurpose it: I gotta get home somehow. I think being twenty years late for curfew would be bad enough without losing one of my limbs."

Kurt chuckled as Forge started tearing apart the leg (again) and re-rebuilding it.

At that point, Fred finally stepped forward and pulled both Kurt and Todd into a bear hug. Todd made hilarious squealing sounds, which only made Kurt laugh harder. Both boys wriggled out of Freddy's thick grip, climbing up to perch on opposite shoulders, like birds on a scarecrow. Fred just grinned at them, proud to play the part of their perch.

While that was happening, Lance asked Forge thoughtfully, "So you're some sort of super-genius?"

"Yeah," Forge said, activating a welding gun in his arm. "A mutant, actually. At least if what Kurt told me about them is true."

Lance's face broke into a grin. "You're a mutant? Ever considered joining a team like ours?"

Kurt glanced back and forth between them, hopeful. But then Forge shook his head while welding the leg back onto the end of his limb. "Sorry. I'm probably going to have a lot of stuff to deal with for a while. Confused family, things left unfinished twenty years ago… it's not gonna be pretty."

Lance shrugged. "Well, if you ever change your mind…"

"No doubt." Forge finished with his leg and put weight on it to test it out. Then, he stood and looked over at Kurt. "Oh, but Kurt… there is one thing I might be able to do… to thank you for freeing me."

Kurt's tail twitched against Fred's back. "Vas?"

Forge grinned and paused, as if for emphasis. "Have I ever told you about the trippy hologram I rigged up for Halloween in '76?"

"Nein."

"Well, to be brief… I invented a hologram projector that made me look like King Kong. Completely psyched out my date, but that's another story. I'm thinking I could design something for you… just, you know, the opposite."

"You mean you could make me look like a normal person?"

"As normal as people get, man."

Various impressed and excited noises came from the other members of the Brotherhood. Kurt, however, sat very still on Fred's shoulder, still trying to get that thought to sink in.

"You-mean-the-furball-could-follow-us-around-in-public-too?"

Fred beamed at him. "You could come to school with us!"

"Yeah, _without_ having to sneak around behind our backs," Lance added dryly. "Which we really need to talk about, by the way."

Kurt smiled at Lance in a way that he hoped was charming, but which probably came out looking more guilty than anything.

Lance just shook his head, Pietro smirked, and Todd snickered, probably enjoying having Lance's vengeance off him for a while. Through it all, Fred just smiled and gave Forge a hearty pat on the back that sent the inventor reeling.

All things considered, maybe he wasn't quite as isolated as he'd thought.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

That night, Todd couldn't sleep. His mind was too busy bombarding him with all the awful what-ifs of that day. What if he hadn't put the dimensional shifter thingy back together right? What if the X-men—specifically, Jean Grey—hadn't been there? What if Kurt and him had simply been incinerated by that lab explosion? What kind of psycho sets his lab to explode on people, anyway?

Hugging his knees to his chest, Todd looked over at the blue shape curled up on the bedding in the corner. The furball had zonked out as soon as he'd collapsed into his pile of pillows, and he was now curled up in a tight ball, occasionally twitching and mumbling in his sleep.

Todd sighed, toes curling into his own bedspread. His mind spun dizzily with a dozen different worries, and even seeing Fuzzy back, safe, sound, and definitely not incinerated into a fine blue powder… it didn't help much. Because it had been _close_, and _shit_ had that scared the green boy.

Way more than it should've.

Todd gulped, his eyes going back to the sleeping furball. The idea of losing Kurt had shaken him more than anything ever before… and that was saying a lot, since he wasn't known for having a stiff spine. Because, while Lance's threats and Mystique's temper were definitely scary in a this-is-gonna-hurt way, Kurt's disappearance was scary in an I-don't-want-to-be-alone-again way.

Todd hadn't even _known_ he could be scared of that. He was a survivor; being alone was just a state that simply came with that. Being shoved around by those stronger than him also came with surviving; Todd could handle being pushed around—he was _used_ to it. Being the Brotherhood's butt-monkey still meant that he had a roof over his head and someone to watch his back when things got rough.

But that was all it used to be about: survival of the fittest… and any toad-boys who happened to be licking the fittest's boots. Todd had been okay with that: he'd accepted his place. He hadn't given a shit about anyone, so long as he was in a reasonably stable place, and the people he was with didn't hate him so much that they killed him or kicked him out.

And then Kurt had come along, with his big gold eyes; and his enthusiasm for the _weirdest _little things, like going to school; and his ability to bring out the best in people despite all the crap he'd obviously been through. He'd made the Brotherhood work together, all for the sake of friendship or whatever, and that was _amazing_. Everyone Kurt met was better for it, because who could deny the need to protect something so pure and gentle? Todd couldn't, even though he wasn't in any place to protect _anyone_. Todd had never thought about anyone's survival besides his own, until Kurt came along.

The boy stared at the other boy in the room, his yellow eyes wide and conflicted. It was painfully obvious he wouldn't be able to sleep at all that night.

Kurt made Todd _give a shit_.

And that scared the hell out of him.

**End Episode 2**


End file.
